


Hey Babe, Take A Walk On The Wild Side

by voodoogypsyeyes



Series: The Great Supernatural Wincest Werewolf Mpreg Epilogue [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha Sam Winchester, Alpha/Omega, Angst with a Happy Ending, Beard Sam, Bottom Dean Winchester, Bottom Dean Winchester/Top Sam Winchester, Canon compliant before s15e11, Canon-Typical Violence, Dadchesters, Dysfunctional Family, Future Fic, Homophobic Language, Incest, Mpreg, Multi, Non-Omegaverse, Omega Dean Winchester, Omega Dean Winchester/Alpha Sam Winchester, Parenthood, Queer Themes, Reimagined series ending, Roman Myths, Teenage Mutant Ninja Werewolves, Top Sam Winchester, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:40:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 65,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21742336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voodoogypsyeyes/pseuds/voodoogypsyeyes
Summary: Sam and Dean Winchester have been living as werewolves (and an Alpha and an Omega) for fifteen years, and have become parents to three werewolf children. Half-human and half-wolf, the Winchesters try to keep their distance from the rest of the world - and try to suppress their animal instincts - but that world and those instincts are calling.
Relationships: Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester, Non-explicit OC/OC
Series: The Great Supernatural Wincest Werewolf Mpreg Epilogue [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1285460
Comments: 145
Kudos: 111





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Supernatural or its characters but I'm writing an epilogue for them because I love them and I want good things for them. This is pretty much canon compliant up until 15x11 because Jack's storyline diverges there, so this would fit canon if Jack's story was different after he returned from the Empty, and if Crowley returned as King of Hell (which he should), and Castiel became ruler of Heaven, and probably other things will be different. I started this fic series in the middle of S14 so it's basically ignorant of S15. This isn't quite like a typical A/B/O fic because this isn't taking place in the Omegaverse, it's the canonical Supernatural universe, and I've introduced into it some creatures that are A/B/O (although they too may diverge from what is known as A/B/O). Creatures that Sam and Dean run into in the first fic in this series, [So You Think You Can Tell Heaven From Hell](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17094443/chapters/40200359) \- please do read that and the second fic in this series before reading this one!
> 
> This fic will likely be longer than the previous two. I'm pretty excited for yall to meet the original characters in this, because I like them a lot. Those of you eager to know more about the creatures that Sam and Dean have become, you're in luck, stick around. Likewise for those of you who are here for the Dadchesters - but these are the Winchesters we're talking about, and familial dysfunction is how they roll. Buckle up and enjoy the ride ;)

_THEN_

"Hey."

"Yeah."

"Remember when you told me I was pregnant... and I was like, hell no, I'm not having any babies, no way no how."

"Uh-huh."

"Wanna go back in time and slap myself."

"I bet."

Sam and Dean Winchester were lying naked on their backs in bed, post-knotting. Both frowning up at the ceiling.

They'd been trying to get pregnant for almost a month. _Trying_. Knotting at every available opportunity. And the trying didn't seem to be working.

"Maybe I'm too old," muttered Dean.

"Maybe it's me," said Sam in reply. "Or, hey, maybe you _are_ pregnant and I just can't smell it yet."

Dean shut his eyes and shook his head. "I had Cas check me yesterday. Not pregnant." He laughed and then groaned. "God, and all this time, us trying to _avoid_ this. We finally decide to go for it, and nothing happens."

"God fucking with us," grumbled Sam. "His favorite pastime."

They were quiet for a while, and then Sam turned on his side to face Dean, head pillowed on Dean's bicep. He nuzzled and kissed it. Dean's fingers combed lovingly through his hair.

"Don't feel bad about this, okay, D?" Sam tried to take his own advice, tried to lift his own spirits. Focused on the man beside him - how lucky he was to have this man beside him, and their twin daughters sleeping down the hallway from them. "I love you so much," he whispered. Dean kissed his forehead in reply.

They weren't gonna have any more kids.

And then Dean went into heat.

It started with Dean inserting himself a little further into Sam's personal space, further each time he did it. Breathing Sam in deep. Unwilling to separate himself from Sam. It was nearly a full day of this before Dean was slamming Sam up against their bedroom wall, leaping onto him and demanding his knot.

Dean was crying tears of need, tearing at Sam's clothes, groping at Sam's cock as it hardened under his hand, gasping out "fuck, Sammy, get it in me, need it in me" as rivers of slick soaked his jeans.

Sam started fumbling with the zipper of his jeans and Dean couldn't fucking take it anymore - he tore their clothes away with claws that burst from his fingers, grazing their skin but oblivious to the pain as he lined up Sam's cock and slammed down on it.

He threw back his head and growled with pleasure, legs wrapping tight around Sam's waist, muscles clamping down on the cock inside of him, trying to lock it inside before it was even knotted. Sam let out a whining moan, his own claws sinking into the wall.

"Fuck - D - _the door_ -"

One of Sam's hands blindly fumbled for the knob of the open bedroom door beside them, somehow managed to find it and shut it and lock it, and then he turned them around, pinning Dean to the door and beginning to pump his hips, driving his dick deeper into Dean's hungry body.

Dean let out inhuman howls with each fierce thrust, his back rhythmically pounding at the door, legs pulling Sam in as deep as possible and hands fisting in Sam's hair while Sam growled animalistically at Dean's throat and fucked him as hard he could.

Their noises became more desperate as Sam's knot started to grow inside Dean. Dean sobbed and begged for it as it spread him wide as he could go. Sam whimpered and licked at the scar on Dean's neck that he'd left the first time he'd done this. His knot began to wedge itself firmly inside Dean.

It caught, Sam moaned, fangs descended into the scar on Dean's neck, and Sam's come flooded into Dean. He continued to bang Dean into the door, even harder than before, trying to get deeper somehow, to mesh them together even more. He kissed and sucked at Dean's neck, purring at the taste of both of them there.

Dean let out something between a sigh and a moan, rolling his hips against Sam, fingers of one hand trailing down over Sam's sweaty shoulders and back.

"Feel so good," he panted into Sam's ear. "Feel so full of you."

Sam murmured incoherently as he covered Dean's neck with kisses. His hips finally slowed their movement. His kisses led to Dean's jaw, his beard brushing at Dean's stubble, and he kissed Dean so softly after fucking him so hard. Dean purred into it and pulled back with a quiet laugh.

"Shit... the girls are still out there by themselves," said Dean, gesturing to the door he was pinned to.

"They'll be fine," said Sam, "they have their toys. If they need something we'll call Crowley."

Dean nodded his approval, letting his head fall back against the door and sighing again. Sam leaned back too, gazing at the claiming bite on Dean's neck and running a gentle finger over it.

"This is... this is the first time we've knotted during your heat that I can remember."

Dean smiled. "Yeah, same here." He cupped Sam's hand against his scar. "Guess we have this as a memento of that first time, and our daughters."

Sam smiled too. He looked down at Dean's stomach and wondered... wondered if this time would give them more children...

He woke up beside Dean several days later. Woke up to Dean's overjoyed scent... and something else. Something familiar.

He inhaled the air more deeply, and then he sat up quickly and stared at Dean, who had been watching him with an enormous grin.

"You smell it, don't you?" asked Dean and Sam saw tears at his eyes.

Sam's eyes moved onto Dean's stomach. He leaned in closer, shut his eyes, breathed in deep. And his own face split in a grin.

"My baby," Sam whispered, leaning in further to nuzzle at Dean's belly, Dean's belly which held his child in it.

"Your baby, Sammy," Dean whispered back, thick with emotion. He stroked at Sam's hair.

Sam leaned up to kiss Dean soft and passionately. They laid on their sides facing each other, kissing contentedly, Sam's fingers caressing Dean's stomach.

"So it seems this only happens when I'm in heat, since the only other time we knotted and got pregnant was my first heat," Dean posited, tangling his fingers with Sam's.

"Yeah," whispered Sam dazedly.

Dean smiled against his cheek. "Can you tell what the baby is? Or if there's more than one?"

Sam pulled back and considered. Concentrated. He remembered the scent of his daughters in Dean's belly - he carefully compared it to this scent.

Then he grinned wide.

"It's a boy."

Dean grinned back even wider, pulling Sam in for a fiercer kiss.

"Mmm, big strong Alpha Sammy put an Alpha inside me, I can _feel it_ ," murmured Dean before pulling Sam on top of him.

Several months later, as they spooned in their bed at night, Dean's belly big with their son, his leg held up by Sam's arm as Sam thrust inside of him and gently kissed his neck, Sam felt a rush of wetness between them. Wetness wasn't unusual during sex, but this amount was. He pulled back and looked down in alarm as Dean's amniotic fluid spread over their sheets.

"Why'd you stop?" whined Dean, arching back - then suddenly curled forward and cursed loudly. "What the - oh fuck -"

Sam flew out of bed and threw his sweats back on as Dean went on cursing and rolled on the bed in pain. "Baby time," Dean cried out, gripping the sodden sheets. "Oh god why the fuck did I agree to this again."

Sam gave a distraught laugh as he ran for the bathroom to grab towels, wishing his dick wasn't still hard in his sweats as he called Castiel and Crowley but not immediately able to do much about that.

Castiel said nothing about it and determinedly avoided looking at it. Crowley stared at it with open admiration.

"Luci wasn't kidding when he said 'perfect vessel'," Crowley smirked and earned himself an epic bitchface from Sam.

"Dean's about to have a baby, can we please _focus_."

"Since you asked nicely," said Crowley breezily as he and Castiel followed Sam to his and Dean's bedroom to help Dean give birth.

Sam and Crowley combined their powers to ease Dean's labor pain, each with a hand laid on Dean's stretched stomach as they chanted steadily, Castiel soothing Dean as Dean pushed.

Before long, Sam and Dean Winchester's baby boy was cradled in Dean's arms as his fathers laughed and cried with joy. Castiel and Crowley smiled down at their new godson/devilson and congratulated the fathers before taking their leave. Sam brought his and Dean's tiredly excited daughters in to meet their baby brother.

Charlene Roberta Winchester, the younger and more exuberant twin, who went by the name of Charlie, and who was now a _big_ sister, insisted on holding her little brother. Sam and Dean showed her how and each used a hand to help cradle the boy in her small arms.

Jody Mary Winchester, or Jo, the older quieter twin, brushed at the little boy's dark blond hair, touched his face and looked into hazelly green eyes, and she beamed. "Daddy," she said to Dean, "he looks like you!"

Dean smiled with weary contentment. "Yeah, guess he does. Good-lookin' kid," he said with a wink at Sam who responded with a kiss and a smile. "So, Sammy, are we going with Dean Junior?"

Sam laughed. "What about naming him after Benny, thought you wanted to."

"Yeah," said Dean softly as he gazed down at his son. "Yeah, I do."

"We should name him Tyrannosaurus Rex!" exclaimed Charlie. Jo scoffed. "That's so stupid," she muttered at her sister.

"I'm sure you girls will come up with some choice names to call your little brother." Dean shot Sam another wink and Sam huffed with laughter. "But his name is Benjamin."

"Benjamin John," said Sam. He raised a questioning eyebrow at Dean, and Dean smiled in response.

"Benjamin John Winchester," proclaimed Dean as he smiled down at his and Sam's son.


	2. Chapter 2

_NOW_

The fifteen-year-old boy was rudely awakened by insistent stomach pain.

He dragged himself out of bed, raking fingers through his unruly golden hair, which grew shaggy from the top of his head and was buzzed short on the sides. He grabbed a shirt (not clean, not that he cared) to throw over his skinny torso, his boxers loose around his bony hips.

He stumbled down the bunker's hallway and into the bathroom and just stood there gripping the edge of the sink for a few minutes, closing his emerald eyes against the fluorescent light. He wasn't really sure what to do. He slowly sat himself down on the closed lid of the toilet. Hunched over. Continued to rake his fingers back and forth through his hair.

Must have been something he ate that didn't agree with him. In which case...

He slid down off the toilet, lifted the lid and knelt in front of it. Sighed, felt his stomach turn in agony. Then he stuck fingers into his mouth and down his throat until his stomach forced its contents up and into the toilet.

He slumped to the floor, feeling no better for having emptied his stomach.

"It's like looking down at my future," said an amused and inebriated voice from the doorway. The boy turned his head towards it and cracked open his eyes, finding his sixteen-year-old sister Charlie leaning against the doorframe with a beer in her hand. Narrow green eyes gazed at him, smudged with black eyeliner, and plush red lips smiled at him; her hair, which was buzzed on the sides but longer on top than his and red at the bottom fading to black, spilled messily around her face; she wore a shirt even dirtier than his with the sleeves torn off, along with shredded plaid pants and combat boots and jewelry consisting mostly of chains and spikes.

Ben groaned and closed his eyes again as more cramps rolled through his abdomen.

"Whatsamatter Benny," said Charlie as she knelt ungracefully beside him and splashed him with beer. "Did the other girls at school call you fat, is that why you're puking?"

"Fuck you," he muttered at the floor, "and don't call me Benny."

"Okay then tough guy," she said with a laugh. She rubbed his shoulder. "Seriously though, what's up?"

"I dunno. Stomach hurts."

"Aw, poor little baby bro." Charlie's hand moved onto Ben's stomach and rubbed comfortingly. Ben could smell her more clearly; beer, gunpowder and Alpha scent. A scent he was well used to by now - she'd presented as an Alpha a year ago - but for some reason, he suddenly found himself drawn to it. He breathed it in and felt his stomach pain ease. He smiled warmly up at his sister.

Then something in Charlie changed.

Her nostrils flared, her eyes darkened. Then they flew wide open and she quickly backed away from him.

"Ben," she gasped, her beer forgotten on the floor and spilling its contents. Her eyes were fixed on the back of his boxers. He frowned at her - and then he felt it. He reached behind him and he could feel something soaking through his boxers. He shoved his hand down the back of them, in his concern barely even registering that his sister was watching him, then pulled his hand up to stare at the clear fluid on his fingers.

"What... what the hell is this?"

"You're an _Omega_."

Ben and Charlie turned to find their Alpha father Sam standing at the door, gaping at his son, his hazel eyes dark just like Charlie's. His gray-brown mane was wild from sleep and his tall frame was draped in a black shirt and pajama pants.

Sam's eyes moved onto Charlie and narrowed. He glanced down at the beer puddle on the floor.

"Go to bed," he ordered her, "and we'll discuss the beer in the morning."

Charlie raised an eyebrow. "If by 'discuss' you mean 'drink,' then sure thing." She sauntered away before Sam could say any more.

"Dad," said Ben in soft disbelief, "I don't get it... I'm... I'm an _Alpha_ , right? That's what D always said, that I'm an Alpha..."

"I don't think so," whispered Sam as his hand took the place that Charlie's had left, rubbing Ben's stomach gently. "Don't worry, Ben, you're gonna be okay. Come on, let's get you back to bed."

Sam lifted Ben up against the bulging muscles of his arms and chest. Muscles that Ben had been hoping to grow, to become an Alpha like his father Sam, like his father Dean had always wanted him to be. He breathed Sam's scent in deep. It numbed the pain in his stomach, made the wetness grow in his ass, and he was revolted by himself. Humiliated tears fell onto Sam's shoulder as he carried Ben back to his room.

He pushed Sam away when Sam laid him down on his bed, shoving his red, wet face into his pillow. "Go away."

Sam's hand cupped Ben's shoulder. "Ben-"

"Please. Just go away."

Sam hesitated, then squeezed Ben's shoulder gently. "Okay. I'll check on you later, alright? And I'll be here, if you need anything." He reluctantly left his son, softly closed the door behind him, and leaned back against it with eyes shut.

Dean's scent floated into his nostrils and he opened his eyes to see Dean approaching. Close-cropped mostly-silver hair with streaks of gold running through it. Dead man's robe hanging open, showing his muscled torso and bare legs under his boxers. Concern in the lines of his face.

The concern deepened when Dean reached where Sam stood and breathed him in. Anger edged into the concern.

"Sam... what the hell's going on, why do you smell like-"

"Ben's an Omega," Sam answered quietly. Watching Dean's face carefully. "I think he's just got his first heat."

Outraged disbelief took over Dean's face.

"What are you talking about, he's not an Omega," insisted Dean. "He's an Alpha, he just hasn't presented yet. I mean look at Jomy, she hasn't presented yet either, doesn't mean anything, just hasn't happened yet."

"Dean," said Sam, moving forward to hold Dean's face in his hands, holding his gaze steadily. "Ben is an Omega."

The outrage grew and Dean pushed Sam away to glare at him. "He's _not_. Quit fucking saying that."

Dean stomped away down the hall to the bathroom, not really sure why he was so angry. But sure that Sam was wrong about this. Their son was not an Omega. Dean knew his own son, and he knew this. Why the hell was Sam insisting Ben was an Omega?

Dean frowned down at the puddle of beer on the floor, shook his head and stepped around it to use the toilet. Afterwards he continued to the kitchen. Too early for breakfast so he threw together a PB&J, grabbed a beer because fuck Sam that's why, and he sat at the kitchen table to eat his sandwich and drink his beer and be angry at Sam and wonder who spilled beer in the bathroom. Probably Sam. With his wild drunken claims.

His sixteen-year-old daughter Jo came into the kitchen. She looked so much like a young Sam; same eye color and shape (Charlie's eyes were the same shape but green), wavy brown hair at about the same length as Sam's, falling to her neck, though she parted it differently so that it fell over one side of her face. Like her sister, she had Dean's nose and mouth. And like her sister, she was tall - taller than Dean but shorter than Sam. She, like Sam, was dressed all in black, a black tank top over black pajama pants.

She looked from Dean's face to the beer he was drinking and wordlessly asked what was wrong. He smiled at her.

"Your dad's being an idiot," he said.

"You call this being smart? Drinking at three in the morning?"

"Oh god, now you're starting to _sound_ like him too," groaned Dean, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Not enough you have to look like him, huh? Buncha... judgy Sasquatches."

"Hey, I don't have the beard, do I? I lack the hair and the beefiness," said Jo laughing as she sat across from Dean. She scanned his appearance again. "I feel like something's wrong."

"Yeah, your dad spilled a beer in the bathroom and is talking nonsense. And something's up with Benny, think he's sick or something."

Jo frowned, staring over at the hallway that led to Ben's room.

"He's not sick," she murmured. "And it wasn't Dad drinking beer, it was Charlie."

Dean threw up his hands. "I can't deal with this right now. It's too early. Or too late. One of those," he grumbled, grabbing what remained of his sandwich and beer and standing. "Go back to bed, okay, Jomy?" He ruffled her hair and left the kitchen headed for the TV room.

Jo watched the hallway for a minute more, then got up and drifted down it, until she stood outside Ben's door.

She smelled Omega scent. Ben's Omega scent. And she sensed how worried both of her fathers were about that. Dean was in the TV room, not paying any attention to the TV. Sam was in his and Dean's bedroom, lying awake in bed.

Ben was curled up in pain and crying as quietly as possible, and although Jo wanted to go in and comfort him, she knew he didn't want that.

She continued down the hallway and came to Charlie's room. The door was open and Charlie was sitting on her bed with her headphones on and eyes closed. Charlie lifted a hand and beckoned Jo in, eyes still closed.

Jo sat at the foot of her identical twin sister's bed, gazing over at her. They didn't look all that much alike anymore, aside from their height and facial structure. Charlie had gained more muscle since she'd become an Alpha a year ago, and she'd also been training with their fathers (as had Ben, although Ben hadn't gained the muscle, for reasons that were now apparent). Still slim but more toned than Jo. An Alpha sister and an Omega brother. And Jo.

_Ben's an Omega_ , Jo said silently to her sister.

"That he is," replied Charlie, music still blaring in her ears. Misfits' Famous Monsters.

Jo didn't say anything else. She didn't know what to say. Didn't know how to put into words what she was feeling.

Charlie took off her headphones and looked over at Jo.

"What are you all broody about?"

Jo shrugged and sighed. Charlie looked her over, and after a minute she spoke again.

"You worried about not having presented as anything?"

Jo didn't answer, but she didn't need to.

"It'll happen, don't worry," said Charlie. She slid down the bed to sit beside Jo and wrapped an arm around Jo's shoulders. "Might take time but it'll happen."

Jo let Charlie's reassurances push her worries into a box which she pushed to the back of her mind, hoping it would just gather dust back there and leave her alone. She turned her head to meet her sister's eyes.

"Why were you drinking?"

Charlie laughed at that. "Why would I _not_ be drinking? You're in this family too, I mean, you gotta see it. How fucked up it all is." Sourness flavored her words. "My dad's my uncle, my siblings are my cousins, we're a family of freaks hiding out in a bunker." Charlie pulled at the inscribed black bracelet around her wrist, the same bracelet each member of the family wore, and she let it go with a snap against her skin. "Gotta lie to everyone else we meet about who we are. What we are."

"Not true. We have Jack, Jody, Donna et al."

"Mm. Guess we do." Charlie snapped her bracelet again. "And we gotta worry about accidentally ripping out their throats."

Jo took Charlie's wrist and rubbed her thumb over the glowing red markings on the bracelet. "We don't. That's what these are for."

Charlie relented with a weary smile.

"Yeah okay. Guess you're right again, brainiac."

Jo gave a soft laugh. She shoved at Charlie's shoulder and stood up. _Go to sleep, punk. Get some rest before Dad gives you hell tomorrow for drinking._

Charlie scoffed. "I'll give him hell right back." She put her headphones back on and smirked at Jo. "Night-night, big sis." Jo smiled and crossed the hallway to her own room.

Dean watched her go. He'd wandered out of the TV room, unable to watch any TV, but he moved aimlessly, not wanting to go back to his and Sam's room. Dean came to Charlie's open door and looked inside to see Charlie leaning back in bed with her eyes closed and her headphones over her ears. She extended a claw from her index finger to pluck at the werewolf bracelet on her other wrist, over and over again, letting it snap back and leave red lines on her skin that vanished as quick as they appeared.

Dean continued down the hallway, passing Ben's door. And an Omega scent that wasn't his own. An Omega scent that was his son's.

Dean came to the room that used to be the nursery. He closed the door behind him, punched the wall and growled.

Ben wasn't supposed to be an Omega.

He was supposed to be an Alpha like Sam. Like Charlie, like Jo hopefully would be. Safe from the kind of shit Dean had to deal with as an Omega. Dean looked at his fist where it rested against the wall, at the werewolf bracelet on his wrist. At least, with Ben's bracelet, Ben wouldn't be such a slave to his instincts.

Maybe Ben would make it through unscathed.

Dean looked to his right and saw the crib Sam had built for Ben when Dean had been pregnant with him. Built to look like the Impala, built strong and decorated with a devil's trap, a Baby to keep their baby safe. Dean felt a tear slide down his cheek and he squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself against the tide of his emotion.

The nursery's door opened and Sam's scent filled Dean's nostrils. Dean didn't look up at him.

Sam's hand slid onto his shoulder.

"D... he'll be alright."

"Easy for you to say," muttered Dean.

"He's strong. Smart. Just like you." Sam kissed Dean's shoulder. Dean heaved a sigh.

_Too much like me._

Sam kissed his neck. _Stop beating yourself up, there's enough things out there in this world willing to do that and you don't have to join them._

Dean laughed darkly at Sam's silent comment. He turned to face Sam.

"I was thinking... I mean, at least he doesn't have to deal with all the heat shit I had to deal with, since he has the bracelet," said Dean softly. "At least that'll give him some control over it."

Dean no longer had heats, hadn't gotten them for a few years. Sam no longer had ruts either. When they'd gotten them, the bracelets had given them control over their mating urges. But now he and Sam were in their fifties - Dean fifty-nine and Sam fifty-five. Middle-aged werewolf dads with gray hair, cut loose from the puppet strings of the mating dance.

Not that they didn't still dance the dance every now and then.

Dean took in his younger brother's appearance. Sam had aged magnificently; somehow he seemed to only get more attractive over time. The streaks of gray in his hair and his beard, the lines in his face all just made him look more handsome than ever. Werewolf aging was an odd thing; it seemed to go very fast at younger ages and then very slow at older ages, since neither Sam nor Dean had aged drastically in the past fifteen years, whereas their kids had raced to adulthood. Which even applied to their non-werewolf kid Jack.

As Dean admired Sam, he thought about the fact that Sam was now three years older than their dad had been when he'd died. Dean tried not to think about his and Sam's parents too often but sometimes he couldn't stop those thoughts from creeping in. And he would imagine their parents' disgust at their sons. Especially at him, the eldest. The one who was supposed to know better, who was supposed to set a good example for his little brother. Who was supposed to protect him from monsters, not make more monsters with him.

If their dad was still alive, he would kill them, for more than one reason.

"Hey," Sam cut into his thoughts, cupping Dean's face in his hands. "What's going on in there?" Sam gazed worriedly into Dean's eyes.

Dean hefted a smile onto his face, felt tears burn at the corners of his eyes, and pulled Sam forward into a kiss so that Sam wouldn't notice. Sam pulled away after a few seconds.

"You've been drinking," Sam murmured against Dean's lips.

"Mmhmm."

"Our daughter's been drinking too."

Dean groaned. "Don't wanna talk about that right now. Want you to take my mind off all this shit, Sammy." He nipped and sucked at Sam's lips until Sam gave in with a groan of his own, pinning Dean to the wall and plunging his tongue into Dean's mouth.

Sam sucked hard kisses down Dean's throat, along his collarbone and down his body. He gave Dean's navel a lingering kiss, as he always did when he was kissing Dean's body. Wordlessly thanking Dean for bearing his children; Dean stroked Sam's hair in fondness.

Sam moved further down to kiss the shape of Dean's half-hard dick through the fabric of his boxers. A light kiss, teasing, promising. Dean's breath caught at the feel of Sam's tongue against the clothed head of his dick.

The wet kisses continued until Dean's boxers were soaked and straining to hold Dean in them. Sam nosed at the fabric Dean was tenting out and breathed him in, sighing in pleasure, and then his fingers hooked into the waistband and pulled the boxers down Dean's legs.

Dean cursed softly at Sam's tongue on his balls, at Sam's mouth sucking each of them in and Sam's beard brushing across his most sensitive areas. Sam's tongue then drifted up Dean's shaft to the pink, swollen, dripping head, and Dean cursed much more loudly when Sam's lips parted around him, welcoming him into Sam's heavenly mouth.

Sam slid forward an inch, lips and tongue sealed tight around Dean, then slowly pulled back before moving further forward, and he kept taking more and more of Dean in. Dean moaned and slipped his fingers into Sam's hair as he felt a finger circle his opening. He was damp but not as wet as he used to get - back when he got heats as well - the finger withdrew along with Sam's mouth. Dean watched Sam take three fingers into that mouth, liberally coating them with his saliva and Dean's precome - and then a slippery finger wriggled up into Dean, and Dean moaned hungrily as Sam's mouth slipped back over him.

Sam's finger drew more slick out of Dean and soon three long fingers were sliding into Dean's body, thrusting in time with the bobbing of Sam's head, rubbing at Dean's prostate. The fingers of Sam's other hand rolled Dean's balls, slow and rhythmic, all of Sam's movements dragging Dean's orgasm closer and closer.

Then Sam pushed all the way forward. Dean's cock sank into Sam's throat, Sam's fingers stabbed into Dean's prostate, and Dean's balls drew up against his body as he came in Sam's throat with a choked gasp.

Sam pulled back to let the rest of Dean's come fill his mouth, drinking it with a contented moan. When he'd drunk Dean dry, he took his slick-covered fingers into his mouth and drank Dean from them too.

Dean flung himself down at Sam, knocking Sam onto his back and straddling him, capturing Sam's mouth in a ferocious kiss, drinking his own taste from that mouth.

_This man is beautiful and this man is mine._

Sam growled into Dean's mouth.

_No one living or dead can ever change that._

Dean rocked his hips against Sam's, feeling Sam's cock throb against him, wet patch on the crotch of Sam's pajama pants where his cockhead strained at it.

"Mmm." Dean savored the lingering taste of come on Sam's mouth. "You didn't take care of yourself, baby."

Sam smiled. "That's okay. I'll go take a shower and take care of it."

"Like hell you will," Dean growled. He slid his hand down between them, under the waistband of Sam's pants and into Sam's briefs to wrap around the thickness of Sam. It throbbed hot in his hand and Sam's hips lifted into Dean's grip as a moan crawled out of Sam's throat.

Dean shoved Sam's pants and underwear to his thighs and then pressed three fingers to Sam's lips.

"Open up and I'll do the same."

Sam whimpered like a hungry dog as he opened his mouth and took Dean's fingers into it, slicking them with spit and come. Dean brought the fingers to his already-stretched opening and stretched it more, made sure he was well-lubed, then he gripped Sam's cock, lined it up, and he sank down onto it with a groan from both of them.

Dean was still wearing his robe and Sam's hands slid beneath it to cup Dean's ass, and then Sam kicked away from the wall where his legs had been uncomfortably folded and in doing so he bucked up into Dean, slamming himself deep. Dean choked out a moan and Sam rumbled with pleasure, his fingers digging into Dean's ass.

"Oh you think you're in charge here," Dean breathed down at Sam, a grin lifting the side of his mouth. He leaned down to lick his come from Sam's beard where it had spilled out the sides of Sam's mouth. "You're still my _bitch_."

Sam gave Dean a fanged grin and tried to flip them over, but Dean locked Sam's legs together, pinned Sam's arms to the floor and gave Sam a sinuous roll of his hips. Sam moaned raggedly as Dean rode him masterfully, powerful muscles moving fluidly on top of and around Sam... and he gave up and let Dean drag his orgasm nearer.

It didn't take long. The taste of Dean on his tongue, the feel of Dean's fangs grazing the scar he'd put on Sam's neck to match the claiming bite Sam had given him, and Dean's body rocking intently against his, Dean's body taking him deep inside - Sam felt Dean get tighter around him as his knot expanded and the muscles inside Dean contracted in response. His knot expanded fully, their bodies locked together, and Sam let out something between a moan and a gasp as he came inside of Dean.

Dean released Sam's arms and moaned softly into Sam's ear at the feeling of Sam filling him. Sam slid his hands up under Dean's robe again, up onto Dean's back to hold Dean close as their hips went on rocking together. The two of them sighed when they were finally spent, Dean sprawled out over Sam with his robe on, Sam with his shirt on and pants shoved down, both content.

Sam's hand slid down to where he was buried inside Dean. "My jerk," he whispered, voice rough and soft at the same time.

"All yours, Sammy," Dean whispered back with a kiss. Sam kissed Dean's forehead when Dean nuzzled into his neck.

They were quiet for a while, drifting close to sleep on the nursery floor. Sam looked up at Ben's old crib.

"Hey."

"Mm," replied Dean into Sam's neck.

"Remember how happy you were when you found out you were having a boy?"

Silence for a moment, then a sigh. "Yeah."

"This is our son," said Sam as he stroked Dean's back under his robe. "And our son is an Omega. It's a part of who he is... and he's a miracle. Him and his sisters."

Dean sighed deeper. "Yeah," he said again, not willing or able to argue with what Sam said. He tried to focus on the feeling of Sam's gentle fingers drifting up and down his back, but he couldn't help wondering what it was that made their son an Omega, what it was that made Dean an Omega too... wondering where these designations came from.


	3. Chapter 3

_BEN_

A knock on Ben's door pulled him out of the fragile sleep he'd fallen into minutes earlier and he moaned quietly as consciousness and pain returned to him.

Another knock sounded. Ben ignored it.

The door opened and Dean emerged from it. Ben looked miserably up at him, then rolled to face away. He could smell how disappointed his father was with him.

Dean cleared his throat. "Benny..."

They both waited a while for Dean to say more. Dean eventually just sighed and came to sit on the bed behind Ben.

"So... Omega, huh."

Ben closed his eyes, willing Dean to go away.

Instead, Dean patted Ben's shoulder pityingly. Like Ben had just failed some kind of test. The thought made Ben snort bitterly; he _had_ just failed a test.

Dean had always been so proud of his _Alpha_ son Benny. Sang praises of what a good Alpha Ben would eventually be. It was all Dean ever wanted in his son. It was all Ben had ever wanted too.

Ben had tried so hard to please Dean. Dressed like him, listened to the music he liked, trained with him, took every opportunity he could to make Dean proud of him. Sam had never put that kind of pressure on Ben, for which Ben was grateful... he just wished both his fathers could be like that.

But all he got from Dean was disappointment and pity.

"I'm... I'm proud of you, kiddo."

Empty words, nothing like how Dean had sounded when he'd congratulated Charlie on becoming an Alpha. Hot tears burned at Ben's eyes.

"Thanks," he said just as hollowly back.

"If you want to, um... ask me anyth-"

"I'm good."

Dean sat there in silence for a moment more, then gave Ben's shoulder a final pat before standing again.

"You gonna be able to go to school today?"

Ben wanted to, if only to get the hell out of the bunker... but there was no way he could sit upright in a chair for hours. With horrific cramps and a leaking ass.

_Oh god_ , he thought. _I'm an actual chick._ He had never wanted so badly to have never been born.

"Gonna stay here," said Ben quietly.

"Alright... well, your dad'll be around, if you need anything... I'll be home later." Dean would be heading off to his job at the garage in town. Jo and Charlie would be off to school. Sam was usually at home while the rest of the family was away; working as a consultant to hunters in the field, researching and doing odd jobs around the bunker, and occasionally leaving the bunker to work as a handyman because Dean's salary wasn't exactly enough to support a family.

"Sounds good, D," Ben replied. D was the name that him and his sisters called Dean by (and what Sam called him sometimes too); Dean himself had asked them to call him that as they got older, to avoid confusion with them calling Sam dad, although they did still call Dean dad sometimes. But Dean wanted them to call him D. Had said that, up until them, only Sam had called him that, and it was only right that his and Sam's kids called him that too.

Dean smiled every time one of them called him D. Ben couldn't see it but he could feel Dean smiling.

"Hang in there, Benny," Dean said as he left, and Ben felt Dean's eyes linger on him before the door closed and left Ben alone again.

Only Dean was allowed to call him Benny. Which Dean took great pride in. At least that was one thing Dean was proud of when it came to Ben.

He listened as Dean and his sisters got ready for their day. Listened to Charlie's music pounding through his wall, Sam and Charlie yelling at each other and Dean yelling at both of them, and Jo, always so quiet, wandering up to his door to silently ask if he was okay. He silently assured her he was and felt her love float into him, smiling and returning the gesture.

Eventually the music and the yelling stopped as Dean and the twins left the bunker. The Impala's engine roared distantly before fading away.

After a few minutes, Ben caught Sam's scent hovering outside his door. Sam stood there, hesitant. Conflicted. Then walked away.

Ben breathed in Sam's Alpha scent hungrily, and hated himself for doing so.

He was going into heat. He didn't know much about Omega heat, but he knew that's what was happening. It used to happen to Dean when Ben and his sisters were younger; Dean would get feverish, sweaty, desperate for Sam, for his Alpha.

Ben didn't want this. He had a girlfriend. He wanted to want her.

He reached out to fumble on his nightstand for his phone and then dragged it towards him. He went through his messages, found the name Kat, then started typing one to her.

_Staying home sick... missing you._

No reply, but it was early still and Kat was probably busy starting her day. Ben smiled as he imagined her; styling her curly brown hair, applying makeup to accentuate her dark features, dressing to accentuate her small curvy body. He wished he could be with her.

_Oh no babe!_ came her reply. _And here I thought you were Superman, that you never got sick!_

Ben never had gotten sick in his life, a benefit of being born a werewolf. Kat didn't know this; they'd only known each other for a year. Ben wondered how he was supposed to keep her around without her suspecting something was wrong with him.

_Unfortunately not Superman_ , he texted her back.

_That's okay, I still love you_ , she said with a kissyface emoji. He laughed softly.

_Love you too. Going to try to sleep a little._

_Feel better babe_ , she said, sending him hearts. _Text me later._

Ben gazed at her words sadly before tossing the phone back at the nightstand. There was no way he was going to be able to keep her around. No way he was going to be able to keep anyone around outside of his family.

He closed his eyes and tried to sleep. Hours passed. The pain only grew, and heat began to stifle him in his bed.

He blearily looked around his room. His supposed sanctuary. Saw classic rock posters, muscle car posters. Over on his desk, pictures of him and Kat. Pictures of him and Dean when Dean was proud to be his dad.

He had to get the fuck out of there.

He rolled himself out of bed, his sheets sticking to him with sweat that soaked his shirt and boxers. The room spun under his feet but he flung out a hand to steady himself as he crossed to the door.

He made it a few steps down the hallway before he collapsed.

Sam came running down the hall, calling out Ben's name, holding Ben's face in his hands and shouting at him when Ben didn't respond. He started scooping Ben up into his arms and Ben pushed him away.

"Stop," he managed to say. "Not some... weak little bitch... I can walk." He pushed himself back onto his feet, leaning against the wall.

"Was just trying to help you get to the bathtub," said Sam worriedly. "Get some cold water, cool you down."

"I can do that by myself," muttered Ben, turning away from Sam and staggering down the hallway to the bathroom, feeling his father's concerned gaze following him.

Ben slammed the bathroom door behind him, grabbed the edge of the sink to steady himself, and looked up into the bathroom mirror. Dean's eyes stared back at him; he looked almost exactly like a young Dean, but his mouth was thinner, like Sam's. _Got a strong Alpha jaw_ , Dean had been fond of saying about Ben. Ben pulled off his shirt and boxers to see the lack of muscle definition in his body. He closed his eyes.

He stumbled over to the bathtub and crawled in, turning the tap to let cold water pour over his overheated body. Tears fell down his face to join the water in the tub.

_Weak little bitch._

He passed in and out of consciousness, and suddenly he felt fingers sliding through his hair. He looked up into his father's face.

"Dad," he sobbed. The hand moved down to dry his face.

"I'm here, Ben," Sam whispered and leaned down to kiss Ben's forehead. "I'm so proud of you, son."

This time, Ben heard truth ringing in his father's words. He held Sam's hand against his face and smiled through his tears.


	4. Chapter 4

_CHARLIE_

Charlie awoke with a snort to find herself still sitting upright in bed, her headphones having fallen off her head and into her lap, music still issuing from them. She flicked them away, swung her legs over the side of her bed and sat there for a minute, holding her head in her hands.

She could smell her brother in heat in the next room.

And her body couldn't help responding. The smell of a newly presented Omega in heat... her heart started beating faster, heat spread through her. She felt her clit growing into a cock capable of knotting the Omega, and she wanted to hurl.

She'd already felt like enough of a freak. Werewolf, child of two brothers, member of a family holed up in an underground bunker. An Alpha.

She remembered when she'd presented as Alpha... she'd just started high school, her and Jo. The first actual school they'd ever attended, since they'd been homeschooled up until then (Sam had taken on teacher duties). She'd been so excited to go to an actual school, meet people she wasn't related to.

And then the rut came on. It had started with her and Sam snapping at each other unnecessarily. An inexplicable need to fight Sam. She was sitting in her history class... smelling the girl sitting next to her... suddenly the girl was staring at her, and Charlie realized she'd been growling hungrily, and Charlie felt something weird going on in her pants, and she rushed out of the classroom and into a bathroom stall, where she opened her pants to find a dick for the first time.

She'd just stared at it for a while, bewildered. She tentatively touched the leaking tip and then groaned at the feeling. Wrapped her hand around the shaft and squeezed and groaned even louder. Kept on stroking and squeezing, getting bigger and harder, until she felt the flesh at the base of her cock swell enormous.

An Alpha knot. Her fathers had told her and her siblings about this. Slowly she gripped it, clamped her hand down on it, and she shouted a curse that echoed around the bathroom as she came, milking her knot and covering the bathroom wall with Alpha come.

She had started truly freaking out when her erection refused to go away. She'd done her best to shove it back in her pants and had run out of the school with her backpack over her crotch and called Sam to tell him what'd happened. He'd picked her up from school, and when Dean had arrived home to learn what had happened, he'd beamed at Charlie and clapped her on the back proclaiming "that's my baby girl!" - he and Sam gave her The Talk, Dean gave her a few volumes of Busty Asian Beauties, and they left her to hump away at her hand in her room until her first rut was over.

Sam was much less thrilled than Dean about Charlie becoming an Alpha. Because he knew what being an Alpha was like. Here she was, an Alpha, being urged by her body to fuck her Omega baby brother. His scent... it was like the smell of food to someone starved.

And she refused to jack off to the scent of her brother in heat. She would _not_.

She stomped off into the bathroom and into the shower, standing blissfully under the water for a while to escape Ben's scent. Afterwards, as she styled her hair into her usual mohawk, she sprayed it with extra hairspray to further drown out the scents around her.

She came back to her room and put Adam and the Ants' album Kings of the Wild Frontier on her stereo. She impaled her septum with a thick spike, rimmed her eyes in black and slicked her lips in red, baring fangs at her mirror as she did. She pulled on a black shirt she'd spraypainted with a white skull and bones, and as she was pulling a plaid skirt up over her hips she turned towards the door to find her father Sam standing there.

"Dude!" she shouted and turned away from him. "What the fuck??"

"Watch the language," warned Sam.

"How about you don't watch me get dressed then, perv," she shot back.

"I knocked. You didn't answer. Maybe you should turn the music down."

Charlie turned it up and smiled at him.

"Charlene."

"Don't call me that." She cranked the stereo's volume louder. Sam stomped over and turned it off.

"Don't push me," said Sam, his voice cold and hard. "Why were you drinking last night?"

Charlie drew herself up to her full height; she was a few inches shorter than Sam but her mohawk made her appear taller, and she puffed her chest and stood imposing before him.

"None of your goddamn business."

"You do not talk to your father like that."

"Yeah, you're right, I don't talk to him like that - you, though..."

Sam snarled and grabbed the stereo, throwing it into the hallway where it smashed against the wall.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM???"

"You wanna act like a little brat, there will be consequences," Sam boomed. "I'm your father and you're going to respect that. And you're going to stay the hell away from the beer unless you want me to take away the rest of your music."

"Hey what the hell's going on in here," Dean shouted over the two of them as he stood in the doorway. "Who threw the damn stereo?"

" _He_ did," Charlie snarled as she glared at Sam. "I didn't even do anything -"

"You drank beer!"

"So??"

"You're sixteen god dammit!!"

"Yeah, I'm a sixteen-year-old freak of nature!" Charlie shoved her way past her parents and out of the room.

"Don't walk away from me," Sam growled and followed her into the kitchen.

Dean stood in front of Sam with a hand on his shoulder. "Sammy, hey, let her -"

Sam shoved Dean's hand away. "No, dammit. You keep letting her do crap like this, trying to be her friend. I'm trying to be her _parent_."

"Alright, you know what, you _both_ need to listen to me right now," said Dean angrily. "Sam, you need to calm down and stop destroying your daughter's possessions and screaming at her like a maniac, that's not going to solve a god damn thing. Have we learned nothing from The Little Mermaid?"

" _Thank_ you," muttered Charlie, grabbing leftover pizza out of the fridge and chomping into it.

"And you," said Dean, narrowing his eyes at her, "you and I need to have a talk about why you're drinking beer you got no business drinking."

Charlie gave him a bitchface in reply. Dean shook his head.

"God, even with the mohawk, somehow she looks just like you when she does that," he muttered at Sam. "Go clean up the mess you made in the hall because I sure as hell am not cleaning that up."

Sam growled his frustration and raked fingers through his hair before leaving the kitchen.

"Alright," sighed Dean, leaning over the kitchen island towards Charlie. "Look, you and I will talk about all this later. For now, get ready for school. I gotta go get ready for work." He patted the side of her face, and as he was leaving the kitchen he passed Jo, who he greeted with a hair ruffle.

Jo came up behind Charlie and hugged her. "You okay?"

Charlie sighed. "I dunno. Trying to be."

"It's the whole Alpha-Omega thing isn't it? Ben turning Omega."

Charlie didn't say anything, but she didn't need to.

"It'll be alright, kid. Don't worry." Jo moved away and patted Charlie's back. Charlie narrowed her eyes at her sister.

"You act all old and wise - you do realize you're only a minute older than me and thus full of shit?"

" _Two_ minutes," said Jo, smirking.

"Well then I guess I'd better shut my ignorant mouth." Charlie smirked back. "Gonna go finish getting ready."

_You gonna check in on Ben? He's having a rough time with this too_ , said Jo's worried voice in her head. Charlie stood still and silent, thinking of her little brother in pain and alone... thinking of him, a helpless Omega in need of a strong Alpha like her...

"No," she breathed out. _No_.

She left Jo in the kitchen and went back to her room. She pulled on a pair of fishnet tights and her combat boots, draped a bullet belt around her hips and pulled on a black leather jacket covered in safety-pinned patches. She slipped rings over fingers that ended with black nails, a variety of bracelets over her wrists, and a spiked choker around her neck.

Before leaving, she looked in her mirror, and satisfied that she could no longer see herself in her reflection, she grabbed her beat-up military messenger bag and headed for the bunker's garage.

She passed Sam in the hall on her way there, carrying the remains of her stereo. She glared as she passed and said nothing. Sam looked ashamed.

_Fucking asshole, he better_ , she thought vehemently.

She leaned against the Impala and waited, and eventually Dean and Jo showed up. She was partly relieved and partly saddened to not see Ben with them.

Dean drove her and Jo to school, listening to his Zeppelin and not saying a word. Once at school, Jo and Charlie headed to their respective classrooms. Charlie smiled as she did; it wasn't that she necessarily liked school, it sucked and she had no friends, but she was just happy to get out of the bunker.

She sat in her math class, not listening to a word of what the teacher was saying and idly carving ancient runes into the wooden desk with a safety pin she'd taken off her jacket. She looked up at the clock.

She stuck the safety pin into her palm and cried out, leaping out of her chair and grabbing her hand.

Everyone turned to stare at her. The teacher frowned. "What's the matter, Miss Singer?"

Charlie showed him her bleeding hand. "It was an accident! I... I was just..."

"Nurse's office, Miss Singer," said the teacher exasperatedly. "Go."

Charlie nodded, picked up her bag and cradled her hand and left the room. Once she'd disappeared around a corner, she pulled the safety pin out with a smug smile and stuck it back on her jacket as her hand healed itself. She licked the blood away as she headed for the PE field.

Once there, she clawed her way up a tree that stood next to a shed at one end of the field. She crawled across the top of the shed until she could see past the tree's leaves. She checked the time on her phone and waited.

A girl came into view, running down the field. She had dark skin and long rainbow-colored braids; sweat gleamed on her bare arms and legs, her pale blue shorts stretched tight over a glorious ass. Charlie watched her, entranced.

"Zora!" A call came from somewhere near the shed Charlie was on top of. The girl's brown eyes were drawn to whoever had called out, and then they flicked up to meet Charlie's.

_Shit_. Charlie quickly rolled out of sight behind the tree branches, eyes shut and heart thundering. Then she grinned. _Zora_. The girl had a name now.


	5. Chapter 5

_JO_

Jo couldn't sleep.

Not with her little brother crying himself to sleep across the hall. Not with her twin sister's mind in anguish in the bedroom next to their brother's.

Not with her parents fucking loudly in the nursery around the corner from her bedroom.

Usually she didn't have to hear them - their bedroom was further away than the nursery, and their bedroom had also been magically soundproofed (by Sam presumably). But tonight they were in the nursery. Unfortunately for Jo.

She sighed and got out of bed. She grabbed her headphones, put on Björk's Homogenic, got her homework out of her backpack and sat at her desk to work on it.

But her mind wouldn't stop turning over the subject of her family. And their designations. And her lack of one.

Dean had been expecting all his and Sam's kids to turn out Alpha pretty much; he'd always figured Jo for an Alpha, and then her twin had become an Alpha, so everyone had presumed it was only a matter of time for Jo.

They still didn't know what any of this meant. Why any of them were given these designations, when no other werewolves had them. Why silver had no effect on them.

And then there were Jo's powers.

She figured she got them from Sam, the former psychic, the sometimes witch. Her ability to communicate telepathically. Her newfound telekinetic ability.

She lifted her pen in the air without touching it, making it twirl. When she had shown Sam this ability of hers, he had given her an amazed laugh.

"You take after your big brother," he'd said, shaking his head. "Jack used to do this."

"You didn't?"

"No," he'd answered her softly. "I could never do that. The... the demon blood..."

Sam never liked talking about this. He steeled himself.

"It let me do things kind of like this... some kind of telekinesis but it was hard to harness it. It didn't come easy."

Jo watched her pen dance in the air, still mystified as to how she was able to do this. The Men of Letters' archives had offered her no answer.

She cocked her head, narrowed her eyes, and she made the pen drift back down to the piece of paper on her desk. She concentrated a bit harder... and she made the pen write her name at the top of the page.

_Jody Singer._

The name the outside world called her by. She'd gotten so used to it by now that writing the name Jody Winchester seemed weird to her.

She and her siblings had always been told to be proud of being Winchesters, but when the time came for them to start school, their parents explained why they couldn't use the name Winchester out in the world. Sam and Dean Winchester were dead criminals. Legally anyway.

So Sam and Dean Winchester had assumed the names of Sam and Dean Singer and the identities of a married (and unrelated, and human) couple; Dean's fake family name was Campbell and he took Sam's fake family name of Singer, which they'd then given to the kids. The kids had come from surrogate moms; Jo and Charlie from one, with Sam's sperm, and Ben from another, with Dean's. Jo wondered if her fake surrogate mom had a name.

Sam and Dean had long since given up hunting and credit fraud. Dean had been working as a mechanic for nearly all of Jo's life, Sam supplementing their income with odd jobs but mostly staying home to homeschool the kids until they reached high school. Sam and Dean still did what they could from home to aid in the fight against evil, and in turn they were protected by the hunters they helped.

The kids hadn't been forced into the hunting life, like their parents had, but their parents had offered to train them should they so desire, and both Charlie and Ben had jumped at the chance. Jo had never been too interested in fighting. She, like Sam, was much more interested in research, so that was her own form of hunter training.

Jo got the feeling that her parents didn't want their kids to become hunters, but felt like they needed to give their kids the option. They probably didn't want their kids to hunt because they didn't want their kids to be targeted by hunters, like they themselves had been.

Jo wondered what the hunters would make of her. A telekinetic werewolf.

A telekinetic werewolf who could read minds.

That was an ability that no one but Jo was aware of, and one that she'd only become aware of very recently. She'd long been able to tune in to the thoughts of her family members, although it wasn't something she'd done often because of the intense concentration it required. She was also afraid of having her own thoughts heard by others.

For years, she'd only been able to listen to her family's thoughts. She'd figured it was just a blood bond of some kind. But now... she could listen to anyone's thoughts if she wanted.

She took off her headphones tentatively, ready to put them back on if her parents were still going at it in the nursery, but fortunately they'd stopped.

Charlie was asleep now. Charlie had been the first mind Jo had ever been connected to and remained Jo's strongest connection.

Ben was awake. In agony.

_I can't be Omega. Something is wrong. What did I do wrong? Why can't I ever do anything right?_

Jo's heart broke for her brother. Not because he was Omega, but because he was ashamed of what he was. His was such a sweet soul, and he tried so hard to hide it. He was like Charlie in that way; underneath her hard exterior was just as sweet a soul. And Charlie and Ben both hated what they were.

Sam and Dean didn't exactly help the situation - they were just as unhappy with their own designations. Dean felt like being an Omega impugned his manhood. And Sam... Sam would never forgive himself for what his rut had made him do to Dean.

Jo remembered.

She remembered Sam lunging naked at Dean, she remembered Dean drawing Sam out of the kitchen where Jo and Charlie were, she remembered hearing Dean scream with pain and she remembered hearing Sam growl with lust. She could still hear Sam's roars echoing down the bunker's halls when Dean had chained him up in the dungeon. Could still taste Sam's blood from when she'd sunk her fangs into his leg, trying to defend Dean from him, small as she was.

Dean had forgiven Sam. Jo had forgiven Sam. But Sam could not forgive himself. Sam would never be at peace with being Alpha. Jo just hoped that her twin sister wouldn't be the same...

And she wondered what designation she would be given. Alpha, Omega, she didn't really mind either way, she just wanted to know which she would be.

She was _supposed_ to know. Charlie had presented at fifteen. Ben had presented at fifteen. Jo was sixteen now.

She was supposed to be in bed. She looked at her clock: half past four in the morning. She was supposed to be asleep and she was supposed to wake up in two hours.

_Supposed to._ Did anything actually work that way?

She put her headphones back on and started dancing to the music, swaying gently to the beat, letting it take her away from her thoughts. She spun around the room that used to be hers and Charlie's, that had been solely hers since Charlie had presented and moved into her own room across the hall. The two of them had grown up together in this room. Jo and Charlie used to dance in here together like this; Jo smiled at the memory.

The walls were still painted purple from when their dads had decorated this room for them. The moon ceiling light still hung above Jo's head, still surrounded by glowing stars. The twin beds had been replaced by a full-size bed, white wooden frame, black sheets and a galaxy-printed comforter to match the moon and stars above.

Jo spun under the stars until she couldn't anymore, and then collapsed on her back across the galaxy, eyes closed as sleep finally settled in.

She woke up to someone patting her foot. She looked up to see Sam.

"Up and at 'em, sunshine," he said with a smile. "Time to get ready for school."

Jo groaned and curled up into a ball. "Just fell asleep."

"There's coffee in the kitchen."

"Mine," said Jo before he finished speaking, sitting up and staring wild-eyed, wild-haired and determined at her father. "That coffee is mine."

Sam laughed. " _Your_ coffee is in the kitchen. Go drink it before it's cold."

"Damn right I will," she muttered as she got up, brushing her hair out of her face as she made for the kitchen. She stuck a frozen waffle into the toaster, poured herself a cup of coffee and drank half immediately. She grabbed the pot of coffee and brought it over to the kitchen table, pouring more into her cup.

_Why do we have such small cups._

She syruped her waffle and ate it in a few bites, licking syrup off her fingers after and drinking another cup of coffee.

A crash sounded from outside Charlie's room and Jo heard Sam and Charlie shouting at each other.

_There they go again._

Jo sighed, grabbed her coffee and did her best to get out of the way of the battling Alphas. She passed Dean in the hall and they exchanged exasperated looks.

She used the bathroom, brushed her teeth, and sensing the coast was clear, she approached the hallway her and her siblings' rooms were in. She saw Charlie's stereo in pieces on the floor, the latest casualty of her sister's battles. Jo stood outside Ben's door.

_You okay in there, little bro?_

_I'm fine_ , Ben replied, not convincing in the slightest. Jo could hear what was underneath it. Could feel how badly he needed an Alpha, and how badly he wanted to not need an Alpha. Without touching him, without seeing him, she wrapped up his heart in hers, letting him know she was there for him, and he returned her affection.

Sam came into the hallway and saw her with her hand against Ben's door. He looked down at the destroyed stereo and shame crept through him. His eyes wouldn't meet Jo's.

She respected his wish for solitude and left the hallway, continuing to the kitchen where Dean messed up her already messy hair and Charlie sullenly ate a piece of cold pizza.

Jo tried to comfort Charlie, but there wasn't much she could do about the situation. Ben was an Omega in heat and Charlie was a virile Alpha. Ben needed a knot and Charlie needed to knot him. As much as neither of them wanted that, it was what they needed.

Jo showered and got ready for school, pulling on a brown and olive green color-blocked long-sleeved dress and some black boots she'd found in a thrift store. She picked up her backpack and met Dean outside her room.

"So Dad and Charlie had it out," she said and Dean snorted with amusement.

"Yet again," he replied. "Here's hoping they both got it out of their system."

Jo gazed at him warily.

"You realize this is only the beginning, right?" Dean only frowned at her, so she continued. "We have two Alphas here, and two Omegas now."

"What's your point," grumbled Dean.

"Haven't you noticed how Charlie's been fighting Dad since she presented? It's only gonna get worse now with Ben presenting Omega."

Dean's expression darkened. "Still don't see your point."

"The Alphas are fighting over the Omega. And Ben's in heat, which means -"

"I don't want to hear any more about this," Dean cut her off with a warning growl before setting off towards the bunker's garage. Jo knew better than to press the subject, and she followed him in silence.

He put Zeppelin on in the car as he drove Jo and Charlie to school, drumming on the dash and singing off-key. Distracting himself. Charlie raised an eyebrow at Jo.

_Rough morning for us all_ , said Jo. Charlie smiled darkly.

Jo lost herself in her thoughts for a while. Dean was so perturbed by the whole incest thing. As were Charlie and Ben, and yet that was what had created their family, so Jo didn't see it in such a negative light. Neither for or against it, just accepting of it.

But Dean and Sam had grown up in a world where incest was a terrible thing, and Jo's siblings wanted to live in that world.

Charlie headed to her class after they were dropped off and Jo headed to hers, welcoming the opportunity to think about things other than her life and her family for a while. She focused on the book they were studying in her AP English class, Kafka's Metamorphosis, which she had become very fond of.

In her biology class, she greeted her friend Danny; short and dark-haired with thick black-framed glasses, a shy weird kid like herself, who drew incessantly all over his classwork. His art was twisted and creepy. She liked him, as a friend. He liked her, as more than a friend.

She could read his thoughts easily - he thought very loudly. How he wanted her. Jo tried to just focus on her classwork.

When the bell rang for lunch, Jo quickly made for the isolated corner of the high school, a low and little-used building that wrapped around a tiny tree-lined courtyard. The courtyard was enclosed by locked doors.

Jo scented the air, made sure no one was around to see her, and she clicked the lock of one of the doors open with her mind, darting through the open door and locking it behind her.

She sat against one of the trees, alone in the little courtyard, gazing up through the tree's leaves at the blue sky above.

She thought about how Danny wanted her. Would he still want her if he knew what she was? Werewolf. Mind reader. Child of incest.

And her family... Dean didn't want to face reality. None of them did. But they would have to... Jo was afraid of what would happen when they finally did.

And Jo thought of herself. What _she_ wanted.

She wanted to eat Danny's heart out. In a very literal sense.

She didn't want to fuck him, or anyone else. She didn't want to hurt him or anyone else either.

She wanted to go to college. She wanted to read her way through as many libraries as she could. She wanted to learn as many languages as she could. She wanted to live her life in peace.

She wanted...

But wanting and needing were two entirely separate things.


	6. Chapter 6

Dean and the twins arrived home in the afternoon as Sam was helping Ben out of the bathroom and into his room, Sam's hand laid supportively on Ben's back. Sam and Charlie bristled as they passed each other.

Jo cleared her throat, drawing Charlie's attention. "Gonna do some homework," she said and motioned to the door of her room. Charlie lifted her head in acknowledgement and Dean smiled at Jo as she went into her room.

"You. Come train with me," Dean said to Charlie, light but insistent. "Been a while, and besides, we still need to have that talk. We can talk and hit each other at the same time, win-win, right?"

Charlie gave him a begrudging smile and followed him to the gym. Sam watched them go before stepping into Ben's room, where Ben was laying back down on his bed.

Sam came over and sat on the edge of his son's bed.

"How ya feelin'?"

"Like my insides are in a blender," said Ben, quiet and strained. "And they're boiling."

Sam nodded solemnly and placed his hand on Ben's stomach, rubbing comfortingly. Ben sighed and looked up at his father.

"Was it this bad for D when he got heats?"

Another nod, this one of enthusiastic affirmation. "Worse. Tellin' you, I don't know how he survived them, but he did. I wouldn't have." Sam laughed a little. "You know... we kinda went through this with your brother too. He lost his powers... thought it made him weak."

Ben's eyes fell from Sam's.

"But it didn't," said Sam as he tipped Ben's chin up. "It only made him stronger."

Ben smiled reluctantly.

"Not saying that being an Omega is like losing powers, just meant how Jack saw it, how it made him feel weak. But you only have to look at your other dad to see how strong Omegas are."

This time Ben smiled genuinely. Sam took his hand away and Ben tried to hide his disappointment; he took a deep breath, drawing in his father's comforting scent.

"Hey, I know something that'll help."

::

Charlie threw her fist at her father's face. Dean dodged it easily with a grin, his boxing glove hooking into her side before he backed away.

"Gettin' slow, kiddo," he taunted, before studying her seriously. "Something weighing on you?"

Charlie raised her gloved hands again. "Don't wanna talk about it."

Dean considered this and started circling towards her. "That's fair," he said before throwing a punch that she ducked; she in turn threw a punch that he again dodged before putting distance between them again. "But I want you to stay away from the beer, okay? If there's something bothering you, whatever it is, want you to know I'm here for you, if you wanna talk about anything. No judgement."

A corner of Charlie's mouth lifted. "Alright. I'll stay away from the beer."

Dean's eyes narrowed but amusement touched his features. "You'll stay away from _all_ of the alcohol."

Charlie pouted.

"I don't wanna see that dirty-diaper face, I want you to say it."

"I'll stay away from all of the alcohol," Charlie grumbled. "But what if all of you get severely wounded and you need alcohol for your wounds and I'm the only one who can get it for you?"

Dean laughed. "Nice try but we don't _get_ wounded, and even if we did, the chances of us all getting wounded and you somehow being the only one left standing? Slim." Dean feinted and then brought Charlie down with a leg sweep, pinning her upper body to the floor. "Oh for two, Charlie Bobby."

Charlie panted and laughed. "Told you not to call me that anymore!"

"I gave birth to you, okay, I'll -" Charlie slipped his hold and flipped them, pinning Dean to the floor by his arms and legs. She grinned triumphantly.

"Gettin' slow there, old man."

"Yeah, yeah, get off me," Dean grumbled, but he smiled at her when he got up.

::

Sam laid the flannel he'd taken off himself over Ben like a blanket; Ben snuggled into it and Sam chuckled fondly, reminded of Ben as a little boy. He brushed the hair off Ben's forehead.

"Feel better?"

"Yeah," replied Ben, but Sam saw him hide a grimace, pulling Sam's shirt up over his nose. It killed Sam to see his boy in pain.

"There's... I can do something else to help. It helped your dad."

Sam hesitated before leaning down to rub the side of his face against Ben's, rubbing his Alpha scent onto Ben and trying not to hurt Ben with his beard, ready to pull back if Ben protested but he didn't. Ben only sighed with relief, and Sam smiled as he nuzzled at his son.

"WHAT THE -"

Sam was suddenly ripped away from Ben and faced with a furious Alpha.

"Charlie -"

"Don't." Her tone threatened nothing less than death. "I don't want to hear anything you have to say, you sick bastard."

Dean came into the room behind her. "Alright, you two need to -"

"He was trying to fuck Ben."

Dean took the words like a bullet to the chest. His eyes traveled from Charlie, who shook with rage, to Ben, wearing Sam's scent and humiliated, to Sam.

Sam was horrified, and Dean was horrified and furious.

"Dean... I wasn't..."

A low growl began to emanate from Charlie. Sam fought the instinct to growl back.

"He was just trying to help me," Ben insisted, tears at his eyes. "With Alpha scent. That's all."

Charlie moved in front of him. "You don't have to defend him, Ben."

Dean scented the air, focusing on Sam's scent and studying it. He smelled neither guilt nor arousal on Sam. He moved closer, stared hard into his brother's eyes.

His expression softened. "It's not true," he whispered. Sam's eyes affirmed his words.

"I fucking saw him on top of Ben!" Charlie's fury only grew. Dean turned to her.

"Hey," he said softly, "let's just all calm down, okay? We'll calm down and we'll talk about this."

"How can you be _okay_ with all of this? With _him_." Charlie's eyes burned red as she glared at Sam. "Demon blood junkie, vessel for the Devil, you really think he'd stop there? Don't you remember what he _did_ to you?"

"Charlie," said Jo quietly as she appeared in the doorway.

"You remember," Charlie said to her. "And so do I." She turned back to Sam, fangs bared. "You call yourself my father? I remember you _raping_ my father."

And this time her words cut into both Dean and Sam like a knife to the heart. Dean fought down the sickness and pain the memory brought up, and he turned to Sam, but Sam just stood there like he was dead. All the life gone out of him.

"Wh... what are you guys talking about," asked Ben, soft and scared.

Dean rounded on Charlie. "Alright that is fucking _enough_ ," he spat. "Go to your room, Charlene."

But her eyes were no longer Charlie's, red and brimming with violence. Like Sam's had been in that memory Dean tried so hard to keep buried.

"Stay out of this, Omega," she rumbled in warning.

" _Charlie_ ," said Jo again, this time moving to Charlie's side, grasping her sister's shoulders and turning Charlie to face her. Charlie growled at her but didn't move away from her; they stood there with eyes locked saying nothing aloud, but Dean knew that didn't mean they weren't talking.

Charlie's eyes lowered and then lifted to meet Ben's. A shudder went through her, she sobbed, and she ran out of the room.

Dean stared after her for a moment before turning to Jo. "What's going on?" Jo met his worried gaze with her own.

"She's going into rut."


	7. Chapter 7

Dean struggled to stay upright as he felt his happy family life crashing down around him.

_My son is in heat. My daughter is in rut. My brother..._

Dean looked around him and realized that Sam had left. He looked at Jo and Ben; Jo watched him with concern and Ben looked like he was fighting the urge to throw up, doubled over on the edge of his bed. Staring down at Sam's flannel on the floor.

"Jomy... can you go find your sister and make sure she's okay?"

Jo nodded. She went over to Ben, leaned down and kissed the top of his head, lingered there for a moment, and left.

Dean sighed heavily before walking over to the bed and sitting beside Ben. They sat there in silence for a while.

"What Charlie said," Dean's voice cut into the silence, "about your dad..."

Dean didn't know what to say next. He knew he needed to say something. But then Ben spoke up.

"Is it true?" Ben's voice was small and unsteady. His eyes were still on Sam's flannel. "Did he really do what Charlie said?"

"Yeah." Dean's voice was hollow. "He did."

Ben looked up at Dean with hurt anger in his eyes. "How _are_ you okay with that then?"

Dean regarded his son with sadness and fondness, carefully considering what to answer him with.

"I'm not okay with it," he answered truthfully. "I never will be. And your dad never will be. But we love each other, we always will. And we love you, and your brother, and your sisters."

Ben looked somewhat comforted but still confused and hurt, and Dean knew he was owed more of an explanation.

"It happened before you were born," said Dean, voice hollowing again. "Your sisters... they were just babies still. And your dad... your dad went into rut, for the first time. Your dad and I didn't have the bracelets back then. So your dad's rut..." Dean sighed. "He couldn't control it. He attacked me. I knocked him out and chained him up until it was over."

The two of them stared at the floor for a minute.

"He never did it again?"

"No," replied Dean. "After that happened he tried to run away. To protect us from him. But he came back. I made him come back." Dean forced a smile. "And we got our chill-out bracelets from your Uncle Crowley, so his rut wasn't as bad after that."

Ben looked down at his own bracelet, running a finger over its markings. He winced and clutched at his stomach. Dean watched him sadly before casting his eyes away.

"I was afraid of any of you becoming Omega."

A different kind of pain laced Ben's scent at those words.

"After what happened to me as an Omega... I didn't want my kids to have to face that." Emotion strained Dean's voice. "If you were Alphas, I wouldn't have to worry for you. Not that being Alpha is a _great_ thing, as I'm sure your dad and your sister will tell you... but at least... at least you wouldn't have to be afraid of what an Alpha might do to you."

"Am I supposed to be afraid?" Sorrow filled Ben's eyes and voice. "Of my dad and my sister? Of being what I am?"

"No," whispered Dean, locking eyes with Ben. "And I'm so sorry if I made you afraid, or ashamed of what you are."

Ben fought against tears as he held his father's gaze.

"What you are is an incredible son, the best a father can ask for. And you're smart and strong enough to protect yourself against anything that comes at you. I know you are, Benny, you've knocked me on my ass in that gym, you crafty little sonofabitch."

Dean's voice was nothing but proud and Ben laughed hoarsely.

"So," Dean cleared his throat and went on, "I'm sorry for being a jackass. You know I'm here for you, right? Anything you need, anything I can do to help."

Ben nodded in understanding and gratitude. Dean ruffled Ben's hair and stood.

"Will you be okay for a little bit while I go find your dad?"

Ben nodded once more, sighing and looking down at the shirt on the floor. "I'll be fine."

"That's my boy," Dean said with an encouraging smile, and he left the room to track down his brother.

::

Jo tracked Charlie to the bunker's dungeon, the door of which was shut but not locked, since it could only be locked from the outside.

Charlie was whimpering and growling inside, her back to the door, her claws scraping at the floor beneath her.

Jo sat down in the hallway, mirroring Charlie's position, back to the door.

"What the fuck do you want," growled Charlie a minute later.

"Wanna make sure you don't do anything stupid," replied Jo. "You're known to do stupid shit."

Charlie barked a laugh. "Bitch."

"Takes one to know one." Jo smirked.

Charlie still whimpered quietly but her claws stopped digging at the floor and her growling ceased.

After a while, Charlie spoke again.

"I don't want this." Jo silently pressed for more. "I don't want any of this. Don't want to be Alpha. I don't want to be Omega either, I just wanna be..."

"I know," whispered Jo. _We all wanna be something we're not._

"And what happens when _you_ present as Alpha, or Omega? I'm gonna fucking attack you? I'm gonna hurt you. _I don't want this_ ," Charlie ended with a sob.

"You're not gonna attack me. Not gonna hurt me. I know it. You know it too, except, y'know, sometimes you're stupid."

She felt Charlie smiling.

"I'll be what I will be," sighed Jo, "and whatever that is, I'll have to deal with it, like we all do. Not just things like us. Every single being in this world. We all have battles to fight."

"Fuck you and your bullshit philosophy," Charlie bit out, but there was no real bite to it. "Doesn't change anything. Just leave me alone."

"Leave you in the dungeon?"

"That's what I want you to do."

"Why?"

Charlie growled warningly. "Because I'm an Alpha in rut and aren't you supposed to be the smart one, why do I have to explain this to you?"

"You've gone through rut before."

"Wasn't like this before," Charlie whined softly.

_There wasn't also an Omega in heat before_ , Jo finished, and Charlie whined again.

Back in Ben's room, Jo had seen Charlie's rut creeping up on her the same way their father Sam's rut had crept up on him all those years ago. The aggression that gave way to violent lust. She had seen the way Charlie's nostrils had flared and fangs had descended as Charlie had inched ever closer to Ben.

Jo had grabbed her sister, forced Charlie to look at her, ignored Charlie's growls. And she had asked, silently, if deep down inside, Charlie wanted Ben. Charlie growled at the question, but Jo demanded that she dig beneath all the overlying bullshit - Alpha, werewolf, sister, all the labels attached to Charlie - and answer the question.

Charlie had looked over at Ben, and she gave Jo her answer. _No._

"You and Ben will get through this," Jo assured her sister. "Only a few days before it's over. You can get through this. But you don't have to hide in the dungeon." Jo remembered the aftermath of Sam's rut. When he'd been chained in the dungeon, when he'd run away from them, when he'd come back and hid from them. She didn't want that for her sister.

"Easier in here... can't smell Ben."

Jo hummed with understanding. Then the corner of her mouth quirked up.

"You know how dads said they named us after, and I quote, 'the baddest bitches to ever walk the Earth'?"

Charlie laughed weakly. "And Bobby. The good one, not the stabby one."

Jo grinned. "And him. Well, you live up to your name, sis. You're a good person, and you kick ass. No matter what life throws at you, I know you'll kick its ass. And we will have your back."

"Dad won't," whispered Charlie. "Not after what I said."

Regret and anger and sadness and pain poured through the door Jo sat against.

"Dad will forgive you."

"I don't know about that." Charlie sniffled. "Have I forgiven him for what _he_ did? I dunno."

Jo knew just how difficult that was. And that this was between Charlie and Sam.

"No matter what, I'm here for you, little sis," Jo whispered, embracing her little sister with wordless love.


	8. Chapter 8

Dean found Sam sitting in the War Room, in the chair closest to the stairs, facing them. Dean lingered in the library as he studied his little brother. He picked up their decanter of scotch, filled two glasses and made his way over to Sam.

He set Sam's glass down beside him and sat in the chair next to Sam's, taking a sip of his scotch.

"I was going to leave," said Sam. His voice was soft and hoarse. His eyes were still on the stairs. Longing in them. "But I can't."

"No," Dean concurred. "You can't."

Sam's eyes dropped.

"You all deserve better than me."

"How many times I gotta tell you, Sammy, it ain't about _deserving_ \- we're a family. We stick together. We have each other's backs, no matter what."

"My daughter..." Sam's voice broke and his eyes closed. "My daughter hates me. She has good reason to."

"Okay, A, she doesn't, and B, I reiterate, _she doesn't_."

Sam's watery eyes met Dean's.

"Charlie's in rut," Dean muttered, taking another drink. "Hence the angry outburst. So no, she doesn't hate you. And as for your claim that she _ought_ to - you and I have talked about this, Sam. And you know that claim is bullshit."

The sorrow only deepened on Sam's face. "Charlie's in rut?"

"Yep. We have a kid in heat and a kid in rut at the same time, and here I was thinking life would give us a break after all we've been through."

The last time a heat had coincided with a rut in the Winchester household had been not long after Dean had given birth to Ben. He had his bracelet finally, so although the heat was uncomfortable, it was manageable. Then, on the second day of Dean's heat, Sam went into rut. And though he too had his bracelet, those days of simultaneous heat and rut had been torture. They didn't want to get pregnant again, so they had to stay away from each other as best they could, while taking care of two toddlers and an infant.

It had been Sam's first rut since the one that had led him to attack Dean. And while he didn't attack Dean a second time, the strength required to keep away from an Omega in heat was just about all the strength that Sam had in him. He snarled at his daughters for doing nothing wrong, just to vent his frustration. He ended up asking Crowley to help Dean with the kids while he isolated himself from them all for the remainder of his rut.

And now Sam and Dean's two youngest had to go through the same.

_What does this mean_ , Sam asked silently and fearfully. _Are our son and daughter going to..._

"I don't know, Sam." Dean's face reflected his concern. The eldest Winchester shook his head. "I don't know. I don't _think_ they will, but is it a possibility, yes, and I don't know how to feel about that."

Sam picked up his glass of scotch and drank half of it as he and Dean sat in silence.

"We can't really judge them for that," whispered Sam. "If they..."

"Yeah, I know," said Dean with a sigh.

Sam thought of what Charlie had accused him of trying to do to Ben, and he felt nauseous. He put his glass back on the table.

"What Charlie... what she said I was trying to do..."

"Sammy, we both know it wasn't true."

"Just the fact that she thinks I would do something like that."

"She's not thinking straight right now. Give her a few days on that."

Someone knocked on the door above them. Sam and Dean jumped in their chairs and stared up at the door.

"Who...?"

"No idea," Dean replied as he frowned. The knocking sounded again. Dean set his glass down and stood, but before heading for the door, he turned to Sam.

"Sammy... you and I know who you are. These kids are smart, but they're still learning, okay?"

Sam attempted a smile. Dean leaned in with an arm around Sam's shoulders and a kiss to the top of Sam's head before he climbed the stairs.

He pulled the door open to find his and Sam's adopted son Jack standing on the other side.

Dean laughed in surprise and pulled Jack into a hug. "What are you doing here?" he asked, pulling away to look the younger man over. "Why didn't you call and let us know you were coming, you lose our number or something?"

"No," said Jack with a small smile, running fingers through his hair. "Just been preoccupied, caught up in a case. I wanted to make it here for Sam and Ben's birthdays." Ben's birthday was the day before Sam's - Sam had declared Ben the greatest birthday present ever - and both of their birthdays had passed weeks ago.

"Don't worry about it," Dean reassured Jack. "Things get crazy, we know how that goes. Just happy to see you, kid, come on in."

Jack walked inside and as Dean followed him down the stairs, he saw the weariness that settled over his son. But Jack smiled once more when he saw Sam, and Sam smiled too as they hugged.

"I'm sorry I missed your birthday."

"No need to be sorry, it wasn't a big deal," said Sam. "We've been kind of preoccupied too." _Understatement_ , said Dean's voice dryly in his head.

"I brought you something," Jack told Sam as he reached into the bag slung over his shoulder. He pulled out a small package wrapped in purple paper and tied with silver ribbon, handing it to Sam. Sam smiled gratefully at Jack before opening it.

Then frowned at the pack of adult diapers he'd unwrapped.

"Figured you'd need 'em soon, senior citizen," said Jack with a smirk. Dean cackled and Sam glared at his brother.

"What the hell are you laughing about, you're gonna need these before I do." Dean glared in return.

"There's something else." Jack gave Sam an apologetic smile as he gestured at the package of diapers. "Inside there."

Sam raised an eyebrow, unsure if he wanted to find out what the other thing was, but he looked at the package and noticed a tear along one side, and he reluctantly reached into it.

He pulled out a small, ancient leather-bound book, its cover etched with runes. He traced the symbols wonderingly with his fingers before opening the book to find the delicate pages inked with more runes.

"Jack, this is..." Sam laughed breathlessly. "Where did you find this?"

"A case I was on earlier this year. A witch. She was taking children and feeding on them - I killed her and I found that in her house."

Dean looked at the little book in alarm. "Is that thing safe to have around?"

"It's safe," Jack assured them. "I checked it for dark magic and there's none. I figured if anyone should have it, it should be Sam."

Sam beamed and hugged Jack. "Thank you." Sam took the book over to one of the bookshelves set into the library's walls; he murmured a few words of Latin and another shelf appeared over the highest one, the newly revealed shelf stacked with archaic occult tomes - most of them previously of Rowena's collection, all of them kept hidden for safety's sake. Sam slid the book Jack gave him in among them, spoke more Latin, and the shelf disappeared.

"You and your Harry Potter shit," Dean muttered and shook his head, but there was affection in his voice.

"I have something for Ben too," said Jack. Sam and Dean exchanged concerned glances.

"Well... he's in his room," said Dean, "but... he's just got his first heat. Your baby brother is an Omega."

"Like what you are?"

Dean nodded. "So he's having kind of a rough day. But hey, maybe seeing you will cheer him up," said Dean with a smile.

"I'm gonna go grab us all some dinner," Sam said with a nervous cough. Still itching to leave.

"I should go with you," said Dean warily. Sadness touched Sam's eyes but a soothing smile lifted the corners of his mouth. _I'll come back_ , he silently promised his brother. _Just need to get out for a while and clear my head._

"You should stay," Sam said aloud. "Keep an eye on the kids. I won't be long. Bring you a six pack?"

Dean gave him a reluctant smile. "Make it two, and some burgers."

"You got it." Sam pulled Dean close and kissed him, resting his forehead against Dean's before pulling away. Sam patted Jack's shoulder before taking off for the garage. Jack watched him go with suspicion in his eyes.

"Did something else happen besides Ben's heat?"

Dean was reminded miserably of the day he'd rescued Sam from the psycho hunters in Iowa; when he'd brought Sam home and Jack had stayed with them, and Sam had shut himself away in his room in shame, and Dean had had to tell Jack what Sam had done to warrant such shame.

"Sam and Charlie got in a fight." Once again, leaving out the heartbreaking details. "Charlie went into rut, and that combined with Benny going into heat... adds up to a shitshow," Dean explained sullenly. "Charlie kinda exploded at Sam. I should, um - I should probably go check on her, check on Jomy too. Could you check on your brother for me?"

"Yeah." Jack regarded him with sympathy. "Of course."

Dean briefly grasped Jack's shoulder, where Sam's hand had been moments before, and he headed in the direction of the dungeon while Jack headed for Ben's room.

Jack knocked gently and opened the door at Ben's invitation. Ben's eyes widened at the sight of Jack, and he gave his older brother a smile that was more of a grimace.

"Hey! I didn't know you were coming by."

"Wanted to surprise you guys," said Jack with a note of apology in his voice. "It was supposed to be a birthday surprise but I know I'm late. I brought you a present though."

Jack walked over to sit beside Ben, taking a tiny black box out of his bag and giving it to Ben. Inside the box, Ben found a necklace: a small Celtic knot made out of bone and strung on a black leather cord. This time, Ben gave him a real smile.

"It's awesome - thanks, bro," Ben said as he slipped the necklace on, touching the pendant where it rested on his chest.

"It's a symbol of strength."

Ben arched a brow.

"Symbol of strength, huh. Did someone put you up to this?"

"No," replied Jack, confused. "Why?"

Ben sighed. "They tell you what happened to me? Our dads."

"They said you're an Omega now, that you got your first heat. That you're having a rough day." Jack frowned at Ben's chest. "But that's not why I gave you the necklace."

Ben squinted at Jack and then shut his eyes, dropping his head between hunched shoulders and fisting his hands in his hair. "Sorry, man," he mumbled, "and yeah, been a super shitty day."

Jack rubbed Ben's shoulder gently. "I'm sorry too."

Ben pushed his hair back with one hand and tilted his head to the side, one eye slit open to look up at Jack.

"Until today... I'd never really thought about what it would have been like for you, when you lost your powers. And you lost them twice."

Under Ben's thoughtful gaze, Jack cast his mind back to the events that saw him become human. The first time he'd experienced what it was to be human, when Lucifer, greedy and ruthless, had stolen Jack's grace, and had thus sentenced him to death. To feel what it was to be mortal and fragile, to become cold and dead. When he'd returned to life, he remained cold and dead, on the inside. Had killed thoughtlessly, had been flung by God himself into the Empty while his fathers cried for him, fought God for him. Had been once again returned to life to feed on the powers of angels, sacrificing what remained of his soul to help his fathers fight the creator of the universe - now its destroyer - and imprisoning God in Heaven, with Castiel as Heaven's new ruler and God's new prison guard. And the choice Jack had to make then: continue living as he had been, powerful and immortal and soulless, or let his powers go, to risk life, to risk death, to earn back his soul. To earn back more than his soul.

"The first time was hard for me," Jack murmured. "Having to get used to being human for the first time. It made me feel so useless... it took me a long time to realize that things like that didn't determine my worth." The pain of old wounds showed on Jack's face. "Took me a long time to see my worth at all.

"The second time, I chose to give up my powers, to regain my soul. And that wasn't hard at all, because your soul is all that matters in this world, really." Jack reached out and patted the Celtic knot pendant where it laid over Ben's heart. " _This_ is all that matters."

"Your powers stopped the Apocalypse though - you saved the world with them."

"I helped. I didn't do it alone. It wasn't my powers that stopped the Apocalypse, it was my family."

A warm smile spread over Ben's face.

"So... what's been keepin' you busy these days?"

"Saving people, hunting things, the family business," recited Jack with a grin that Ben returned, but Jack's grin faltered. Ben looked his brother over; Jack's hair was shaggy and unkempt, unlike the neat haircut he usually sported. The beginnings of a beard shadowed Jack's lower face. And there was sorrow behind his eyes.

"Jack... is something wrong?"

Jack's eyes fell, and he took a moment to answer Ben.

"The last case I was on... the reason why I couldn't get here sooner... it didn't go well," replied Jack quietly. His face tightened. "Bobby and I were hunting a werewolf."

Fear and guilt seized at Ben.

"Bobby had him," Jack continued. "He was about to kill him, but the werewolf told us it was all a misunderstanding - he said that he was a friend of the Winchesters. He begged for mercy. So Bobby stopped and let him up." Jack took a deep breath. "He threw Bobby from the upper floor of a two-level apartment building. I killed the werewolf."

Ben instinctively shrank away from Jack.

"I hadn't actually killed any werewolves since... since our dads got turned," said Jack, voice grave. "Bobby... he's alive, but only just. In a coma. I don't know if he'll wake up."

Silence fell between the two. Ben steeled himself before moving closer to rest his hand on Jack's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, bro," whispered Ben. Bobby had once stabbed his father, but Bobby had since regretted what he'd done, and Bobby had been by Jack's side for years - and Ben knew that killing that werewolf would not have been an easy decision for Jack.

Jack closed his eyes, sat silently for a moment more, then turned to Ben. "It's okay," he said faintly. "I'll be okay, don't worry. I hope I'm not... I didn't really want to tell you guys about this."

Ben shook his head. "Don't feel bad," he said firmly. "Don't be afraid to talk to us - we're family, that's what we're here for, man."

Gratitude radiated from Jack and he squeezed his little brother's hand on his shoulder.


	9. Chapter 9

Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf played from a little wireless speaker sitting on the kitchen island and Jo bopped her head and sang along as she made pancakes. Jack smiled as he watched her.

As Jo buttered a pancake on a plate, she made the pan she was cooking with lift itself and flip another pancake smoothly.

"Showoff."

"Jealous," Jo shot back over her shoulder, still moving to the music.

"So when did you get the ability to do that?"

"Make pancakes?"

Jack's smile widened. "Make pancakes without touching the pan."

"Three months ago, roughly." She pushed her hair out of her face and turned to study her older brother. "Been a while since you've been home, huh."

Jack's smile dropped. "Been too long, I guess."

"How long will you stay?"

"Next full moon is in eleven days?" he asked, and she nodded. "I can stay until then."

"What about Bobby?"

Jack looked morosely up at his sister from where he sat at the kitchen table.

"I don't know what to do. I tried praying to Castiel but he hasn't answered. None of the angels have."

"We haven't heard from Uncle Cas for a while either," lamented Jo.

"I stayed in that hospital for weeks, sat in Bobby's hospital room and prayed, over and over again." Pain flashed in Jack's eyes. "Nothing I can do but watch the machines try to keep Bobby alive."

Jo looked her brother over sadly. "I'm so sorry, Jack... I wish I could help him."

"I know," whispered Jack. "I do too."

Jo's nose twitched and she looked back at the pan on the stove. "Shit," she muttered at the burnt pancake. She threw it in the trash and poured some more batter in the pan.

She gave Jack a plate of pancakes with syrup to give to Ben, piling pancakes on another plate to bring to her sister. Jack brought Ben's breakfast to his room, where he found Ben curled up on the floor in his boxers in front of a fan, dripping sweat, staring miserably at the phone in his hands. Jack looked worriedly at his little brother.

"Jo made you pancakes," Jack offered gently, setting the plate down on Ben's desk.

Ben let the phone slip out of his hands with a groan. "She expects me to eat?"

"I don't know if she expects you to, but you probably should."

Ben sighed and turned to look up at Jack.

"My girlfriend wants to come over."

Jack frowned. "Is that a good idea?"

"It is a _terrible_ idea," bemoaned Ben. "But Kat wants to, because she's worried about me, but we can't have people over here, because we can't tell people about the secret underground bunker we live in, and why do I even _have_ a girlfriend if I can't tell her where I live or why I'm missing school??"

Jack grimaced. "I... guess that would be a bad idea."

"No shit." Ben covered his face with his hands. "She doesn't even know my real last name, man. We're not even the same species. This is... I can't do this."

Jack sat down on the floor next to Ben.

"You like her a lot?"

Ben laughed mirthlessly. "I do. I shouldn't, but I do."

"Then you'll figure out a way to make it work. You _can_ do this. I believe in you."

Ben forced a smile up at Jack, then got up and grabbed the plate of pancakes, sitting back down to eat them. As he ate, he studied Jack.

"What about you and Claire?"

Jack gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

Ben grinned wickedly. "Don't think I don't know there's something going on between you guys."

"There's nothing going on," Jack insisted, a little too heatedly, and Ben gave him a thoughtful nod.

"Alright then." He ate another bite of pancake. "She likes you though."

"She does?" Ben grinned again at the hope in Jack's voice. Claire hadn't actually said anything, but Ben could see it in her just as well as he could see it in Jack; as hunters, Claire and Jack had been working together more and more often, and they could claim it was coincidence, but Ben knew better.

Ben opened his mouth to reply but he was suddenly hit with Alpha scent and he turned towards his door to see Sam. The words he had been about to say were overtaken in his mind by words spoken the day before. Charlie telling Sam _I remember you raping my father_. Dean fearfully admitting _I was afraid of any of you becoming Omega after what happened to me_. Most horrific of all, Charlie's accusation when she'd separated Sam from Ben.

Ben and Sam eyed each other nervously before Sam's eyes fell to the pancakes Ben was eating. Sam offered Ben a small smile. "Pancakes, huh?"

Jack spoke up when Ben failed to answer. "Jo made breakfast - there's more in the kitchen."

Sam watched Ben for a moment, saw how his son could hardly look at him, felt pain clutch at his heart. He gave Jack a nod and continued despondently down the hall, passing the kitchen.

"Dad!"

Jo came bounding out of the kitchen carrying a plate of pancakes. She held it out to Sam.

"Made ya breakfast."

Sam's lip quivered as he smiled painfully at his daughter. She looked up at him concernedly, looked at him with love he did not deserve.

"Thank you," he whispered. "I'll eat later, just gonna... gonna go for a walk."

"I'll come with you."

"Jo..."

"Coming with you," she insisted, her tone leaving no room for argument. She returned the pancakes to the kitchen and rejoined Sam in the hall, determination on her face, and he resignedly led them out of the bunker, out into the overcast morning and in the direction of the park that sat a mile down the road.

"I remember you taking us for walks down to the park," said Jo with a smile. "Every day after lunch."

Sam couldn't help smiling at the memory - taking the kids for a walk after they'd done their schoolwork in the morning and eaten their lunch. The kids had looked forward to it every day.

"When we were little you'd let one of us sit on your shoulders while you walked, and we used to fight over who it'd be," laughed Jo. "Who'd get to sit up there on top of the world."

Sam felt tears prick at his eyes. _She remembers that. And she remembers me raping her father._

He could feel Jo's eyes on him, piercing through him.

"Dad... you know Charlie didn't really mean what she said, right?"

Sam pressed his lips together, face tight.

"What she said was the truth."

"No." Jo stopped him with a hand on his arm, and he turned to her reluctantly.

"What happened that day, you had no control over. You have to stop blaming yourself."

Sam looked at Jo and remembered her, as a baby, attacking him to defend Dean. A tear fell down his cheek.

"How are you okay with this?"

"Who said I was? Who said _any_ of us was? I'll tell you what I am though, I'm smart enough to know that it wasn't your fault. And Charlie's smart enough to know that too, she's just distracted right now. She's going through some really rough times. And we _need_ you to be strong, Dad." Jo's grip tightened on Sam's arm. "We need you to be strong right now."

Sam closed his eyes, breathed in deep, let it out slow, and looked back down at his daughter, his daughter looking up at him with his own eyes. Still looking up at him with love.

His face wrinkled in a smile and he cupped the side of her face in his hand.

"Okay," he said softly, patting her face before dropping his hand. "Okay, sweetheart."

She smiled up at him and nodded towards the park. "Shall we?"

"I'm not carrying you down there this time though," said Sam, grinning as he began walking with her again. "You're way too big."

::

It took three days for Ben's heat to pass; three days of alternating sitting in an ice cold bath with laying on his bedroom floor in front of his fan, three days of struggling to sleep and struggling to eat while his insides writhed and his body demanded something he couldn't give it.

Three days of locking his bedroom door and sticking fingers up his ass to try to get his body to shut the fuck up. Three days of shoving his face into his Alpha father's shirt and trying not to be disgusted by himself, three days of wondering how his Omega father had dealt with this for years.

Three days of answering his girlfriend's questions with various lies. Saying he couldn't talk because he needed to sleep, saying she couldn't come over because his parents wouldn't allow it... well, that last lie was actually the truth, though it left out the reason why.

And Charlie was still in rut. Still locked in the dungeon voluntarily and refusing to let anyone but Jo in.

Jo entered the dungeon to let Charlie know Ben's heat was over. Charlie was curled up in a corner, filthy from going days without showering, her hair a tangled mess of red and black spikes, makeup smeared on her face. Jo's heart clenched at the sight.

She knelt in front of her sister. "Ben got through his heat," she whispered.

Charlie was pulling at her werewolf bracelet again, stretching it and letting it snap cruelly against her skin. She didn't respond to Jo.

"Your rut should be over soon too."

Charlie's bracelet bit into her wrist.

"We're gonna have dinner in a little while - I'll bring you some food." Jo looked over at the plate she'd brought earlier that day, the food on it barely touched. She sighed before standing again.

"Wait."

Jo turned at the sound of Charlie's hoarse voice. Charlie sat up and looked over at the chains that hung from the dungeon's wall, then looked down at her bracelet. She looked up at Jo, green eyes pleading, hair falling into her face.

"Chain me up."

Jo stared at Charlie in confusion. "What?"

Charlie crawled over to the chains, put her wrists through the iron cuffs. "I want you to chain me here. And I want you to take this bracelet off me."

"Why the hell would I do that?"

"Please," said Charlie, hurt, desperate. "Please, sis."

Jo frowned, deeply unhappy with this idea. But the plea in her little sister's voice and eyes cut straight to her heart. She knelt in front of Charlie again.

"When do you want me to unlock the chains," she asked sadly.

"When it's over."

Jo's eyes fell between them, she nodded in understanding, and she reached up to lock the cuffs around her sister's wrists. She gripped the wrist that bore the bracelet.

"Are you sure about this?"

Charlie pressed her lips together and nodded her certainty.

"I'm going to come check on you," said Jo firmly, "and don't tell me I can't."

A hint of a smile tugged at one corner of Charlie's mouth. "Not gonna."

Jo sighed heavily and pulled off the magical black band that had adorned her sister's wrist since they were infants. They both gazed at it curiously for a minute, having never seen one of the bracelets not being worn; the markings seemed to glow brighter, more insistent, as if the bracelet were demanding to be put back on.

A low growl began to fill the air, and it took a moment for both of them to realize it was coming from Charlie. Charlie's eyelids fell shut as her body began to quiver.

"Get out," Charlie breathed, and Jo watched her worriedly.

Charlie's eyes revealed themselves, rubies in the place of emeralds, gleaming with violent intent. " _Get out_ ," Charlie growled, sounding barely human, fangs emerging beneath her lips. Jo stayed still until Charlie jerked forward in her chains with a loud clang and a bone-shaking roar, a sound that Jo had never heard come out of her sister, and she scurried out of the dungeon.

She slammed the door shut and pressed her back to it, heart hammering at her ribcage as she listened to her sister's bestial roars, memories bombarding her from years ago when her father had been locked in that dungeon.

Sam and Dean came running into the hallway, stopping and staring at Jo where she stood against the dungeon's door, their eyes wide and questioning. Jo's hand shook as she brought it up to show them Charlie's bracelet.

"She asked me to," whispered Jo.

The look on both her fathers' faces was horrorstruck. They listened to Charlie bellow and fight against her restraints, and Jo could plainly see the memories bombarding them as well.

_But I have to believe that we're stronger than that darkness._

_I have to believe that I'll get my sister back._

Ben and Jack showed up, wanting to know what was going on, and Dean shifted into authoritative dad mode, ushering everyone out of the hall. Everyone except Sam, who pressed his hand to the door, reciting a spell that would contain the din behind it. But Jo could still hear it in her mind.

The dads cooked dinner for their kids (and their grown-up kid); macaroni and cheese, Ben's favorite meal, to celebrate his presenting Omega. He got to have his first beer too, although he spat out the first sip in disgust. And although everyone was trying to enjoy dinner, Charlie's absence at the table was unignorable, and Jo could feel the weight of Charlie's bracelet in her pocket.

"So Benny, how's that girl of yours, she missin' you?"

Ben sighed and shoved more mac n' cheese into his mouth. "Can we not talk about that right now?"

" _Ah_ , she's missin' you _too much_." Dean grinned slyly. "She'll be happy to get you back."

"Not so sure about that," muttered Ben.

"Well, I am," said Dean with a wink, "you're _my_ kid after all." Dean's eyes narrowed as he went on looking at his teenage son, until finally he reached out to brush the backs of his fingers against Ben's jaw.

"Is this... stubble?"

Ben pulled away from Dean's touch and brought his own hand up to his face, rubbing his fingers over the hair beginning to grow on it. His eyebrows raised and the corners of his mouth turned down as he shrugged. "Guess it is."

Dean's eyes narrowed once more. "Gonna have to teach you how to shave before you grow a hobo beard like your brother."

Jack gave Dean a look that was part offended and part amused as he rubbed at the hair on his face. "This is a hobo beard to you?"

"Don't listen to him," said Sam with a smirk. "He's just jealous he can't grow a beard himself."

"I am _not_ jealous," said Dean, unamused. "You having a beard, whatever, that's fine, but Jack having a beard, our _kid_ having a beard? That just makes me feel old."

"That's because -"

"Don't you finish that sentence."

The sound of wings beating the air suddenly filled the kitchen and the family looked around until their eyes landed on the angel standing in the doorway, dressed in his usual trenchcoat and rumpled suit.

"Cas??" Sam and Dean said together in bewilderment.

"I heard Charlie," said Castiel worriedly. "Praying, asking for death. What's going on?"

Then Castiel saw Jack sitting at the table. Concern deepened on the angel's face. Rage began to twist Jack's features.

"Jack..."

Jack stood from the table to glare at Castiel.

"Where have you been?"

Castiel stood immobilized by guilt and pain.

"I prayed," said Jack, his voice soft and hurt. "I don't even know how many times... why didn't you answer? Why didn't you help Bobby?"

The angel's eyes fell, unable to meet Jack's. "Jack... I'm so sorry... I can't save him." Castiel's voice was just as hurt as Jack's. "I didn't want to have to tell you that."

" _Why_ can't you save him?"

"I made a pact with Billie when she helped me take Heaven - I can't interfere in Death's dealings. I can't stop her from reaping someone."

Jack trembled with emotion as he strode up to Castiel.

"And you couldn't even be there for me when I needed you? You come here for Charlie, but you leave me in that hospital room alone?"

When Castiel didn't answer, Jack shoved him aside and stormed out of the kitchen. Everyone listened in painful silence to the sound of Jack's footsteps carrying him up the stairs and disappearing out of the bunker's door before slamming it shut.


	10. Chapter 10

Castiel flinched at the bunker's door slamming behind Jack, and he stood in the kitchen awkwardly for a while before Dean got up from the table.

"Alright, you come with me," he told the trenchcoated angel, "we got some things to talk about and we need liquor for it." He grasped Castiel's shoulders and started steering him towards the library, glancing back over his shoulder at Sam. Sam's expression was worried but he nodded encouragement at Dean.

Dean poured drinks for himself and the King of Heaven, then sat across from him at one of the library's tables.

"So, first off, Charlie is in rut," Dean began with a sigh. "Well actually this whole mess started with Benny going into heat a few days ago and then the rut thing happened right after. So Benny is an Omega now. Charlie hasn't reacted well. She won't come out of the dungeon. She took her werewolf bracelet off. Now I guess she's asking angels to kill her." Dean drained his glass. "These are things I was never told to expect when raising children." Dean poured himself another drink and nudged Castiel's drink towards him.

Castiel tossed the drink down and held out his empty glass for Dean to pour another.

"I didn't want to hurt Jack. I thought... if I didn't tell him I couldn't save Bobby, it would be better. I thought I could avoid hurting him." The beleaguered angel drained another glass of scotch and Dean plunked the decanter in front of him instead.

"He'll see that eventually," sighed Dean, "just give him some time to calm down."

Castiel nodded and then stared hard at Dean. "And Charlie is upset because she's in rut?"

"Putting it mildly. She's been picking fights with Sam, Alpha thing I guess, it escalated, now here we are. She's afraid to go anywhere near Benny - again, Alpha thing, reacting to an Omega." Dean gazed sadly across the table. "She's scared of herself."

"Hey," Sam broke in as he joined them in the library, glancing at Castiel and then Dean. "I texted Jack - I asked where he went and if he's okay, and he said he's alright. He said he'll be at the hospital." Sam looked back at Castiel. "If any of us wanted to find him."

Castiel looked contemplatively at Sam before slowly nodding. He then turned his gaze towards the dungeon.

"Can I visit Charlie?"

"Yeah," Dean replied. "She might tell you to get out, but yeah."

Castiel squinted. "I'll knock on the door. Like a human."

"Good call."

Castiel left the library with a pat on the shoulder from Sam, and true to his word, knocked on the dungeon's door when he reached it and announced his presence. Charlie wearily invited him in.

He opened the door to find Charlie slumped against the wall with her wrists chained above her, her eyes closed. They opened, lifted to meet his, dull green and glassy.

"You heard me," she whispered.

"Yes," Castiel said softly. He crossed the room and unlocked her chains, watching as her wrists healed from where they'd pulled at the cuffs and had broken the skin.

"Did you come to kill me?"

Sadness washed over Castiel. "Of course not."

"You should." Desperation gleamed in Charlie's eyes. "I'm dangerous. It's only a matter of time before I hurt someone."

"Charlie, I've known you since before you were born, and I know that's not true."

Charlie held Castiel in her gaze, silent in contemplation.

"Will you watch over my family?" she pleaded softly. "Will you protect them from me if you have to? Please... please promise me you will."

Castiel studied the girl, emotions warring in him. Wistfully he remembered a time when no emotions had beset him, but he knew that hadn't been a better time. The angels he'd called his family then had only been family in name.

But this girl, her siblings, her parents, they were his true family. Through good times and bad. And although (or perhaps because) he had failed his family as of late, he was determined not to fail them now.

"I promise I won't let any harm come to any of you," he told Charlie. _Or to Jack, if I can help it_ , he promised himself. He held out a hand and Charlie let him help her up from the floor.

He assessed her as she stood. "Your fathers told me you were in rut - are you, still?"

"No, it's over now," Charlie assured him, though her tone was not relieved. She glanced at the wrist she normally wore her werewolf bracelet on. "Guess I better go get my collar back from my sister and grab a shower."

Charlie tried to comb her fingers through the mess of her hair before giving up with a heavy sigh. She thanked Castiel, summoned up a small smile, and she left the dungeon to return to the rest of her family under Castiel's watchful eye.

::

Charlie hadn't hung around the others in the bunker for long and neither had Castiel, who'd been quickly called back to Heaven. Charlie showered, got her bracelet back, snatched food out of the kitchen like a nervous raccoon and scurried away with it to her bedroom, locking the door behind her.

The rest of the family had retreated to their own rooms afterward, and the fathers laid together in their bed.

"You think Jack and Cas will be alright?"

Sam nodded, lying on his side facing Dean as Dean did the same. "Yeah. They'll get through this."

Dean studied Sam. "Think our kids will?"

Sam laughed. "That's a question I'm never gonna have the answer to, but I do know that no matter what, I'm going to do all I can to help them. That _we're_ going to help them." Sam threaded his fingers through Dean's. He pulled Dean close and Dean went to him with a kiss.

"Is that gonna mean signing off on our kids screwing?"

"I don't think so," said Sam, keeping Dean close to him. "They're not like us. I mean, they're a _little_ like us, they are our kids, but... they're not _us_."

Dean laughed and shook his head. "What are you getting at here?"

"They don't have - between them - what we have between us."

Dean's eyes flickered over Sam's face. He leaned in and let his lips feather over Sam's.

"What do we have between us, Sammy?"

Sam smiled. "I don't really know how to put it into words." Dean pulled back to look at Sam, silent and pensive.

"I've never really felt like myself," Dean began quietly. "With anyone but you. And our kids now I guess, but before they came along, it was just you. With everyone else, it was like I had to hide, I couldn't just be myself. I didn't feel safe with anyone else. So... I couldn't really _be_ with anyone else. I could have sex with someone but it didn't really mean anything. They were never actually having sex with me, just the person they thought I was."

Sam studied Dean intently.

"You were never in love with anyone else?"

"No," replied Dean, honesty pouring from him. "There's people I love besides you, but no one I've ever been in love with besides you."

A smile broke over Sam's face like sunshine. "Same here."

"You weren't in love with Eileen? Or Jess? Amelia?"

The smile on Sam's face faded, the names Dean spoke threatening to open old wounds in Sam's heart.

"I loved them," Sam whispered. "But no, I wasn't in love with them. I wanted to be. For the longest time... I thought something was seriously wrong with me, I thought it wasn't possible for me to feel something like that... because I couldn't face the fact that I was already in love."

Dean brushed Sam's hair from his face. "Same here," Dean echoed Sam's words back at him. "So I guess that's what you mean when you say our kids don't have the same thing between them?"

"Yeah," Sam sighed. "I think we'd both know if they did, but I don't see anything like that in them."

Dean hummed in agreement and went on playing with Sam's hair. A smirk began to pull at his mouth.

"Did you ever think about me when you were sleeping with anyone else?"

Sam narrowed his eyes and began to smirk back. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I mean Jess, I couldn't help noticing the similar hair color to mine, eye color..."

"Lips too," Sam murmured, leaning in to brush his against Dean's. "She had lips like yours." Dean's lips moved sinuously against Sam's until Sam pulled back again.

"Her personality reminded me of you too. And not just her, almost everyone I slept with, they reminded me of you in some way. But none of them were you, and that was the problem."

"It was a problem, yeah."

Sam cocked his head. "Did _you_ ever think about me like that?"

"I, uh... yeah," said Dean with a guilty grin. "Couldn't help it sometimes, I'd be with a girl who was fucking me up the ass -"

"Um," Sam broke in, "you wanna... repeat that last part?"

"You gonna act like you didn't know I'm a full-fledged sexual deviant? I mean, besides what we've done together, you saw me in the act with those twins at that motel. So yeah, I had girls fuck me with strapons sometimes, and yes, some of those times, thoughts of you crept in. Thoughts that I tried not to pay attention to."

Sam grinned, a little wickedly and a lot fondly. "So... what did you imagine doing with me?" Sam's cock twitched with eagerness and Dean didn't fail to notice.

Dean kissed Sam open-mouthed, tongue winding around his brother's, while his hand cupped Sam through his briefs.

"Never got to do this with any girls, strapon or no." Dean went on kissing Sam and stroking him through his underwear until Sam was panting and rocking his hips, cock barely restrained by fabric. Dean then plunged his fingers past the waistband and wrapped them around Sam's hardness.

"Love getting you all big and hard for me, Sammy." Sam let out a lusty growl.

"Love getting you wet for me," Sam murmured as he dipped fingers into the back of Dean's boxers and between his cheeks to find Dean wet and welcoming. His index and middle finger slid smoothly into Dean, then began to slide rhythmically in and out.

Dean's head fell back and he moaned with need as a third finger pushed into him, pushed him open and pulled more slick out of him; he arched into Sam's hand as Sam opened his mouth against Dean's neck and sucked hard kisses into his soft skin, groaning as Dean got louder, fingers pumping deeper inside of him.

Sam's fingers abruptly whipped out of Dean and Sam sucked them into his mouth, growling like a predator tasting his prey.

"Taste good, baby?"

Sam kissed Dean wildly in response, feeding Dean's taste back into his mouth and making both of them moan.

"Wanna taste you too," Dean panted, pulling Sam's cock out of his briefs and giving him long hard strokes, making precome well out of him and making him grunt and buck into Dean's hand. Sam pulled Dean's hand away and kissed him beseechingly.

"Do it," Sam whispered. "Please."

Dean smiled and stripped them both of their underwear before pushing Sam onto his back. "Want you to get me off with your mouth." Dean nibbled kisses at Sam's lips and sucked at Sam's tongue. "And I'll get you off with mine."

Sam tried to arch up off the bed but Dean held him down with a filthy grin. "Uh-uh. You stay right where you are, tiger." Sam grinned back eagerly.

Dean turned himself so his face was above Sam's dick and his ass was above Sam's face, his arousal dripping onto Sam. Dean encircled Sam loosely with his fingers, licked at him and breathed out, "Taste it, Sammy."

Sam hooked his arms under Dean's thighs, his hands cupped Dean's ass and spread it open, and he pulled Dean down to lick torturous slow strokes over Dean's quivering wet hole. Dean muffled his pleasured cries with Sam's thick cock, suckling at the head, and Sam moaned straight into Dean's body, hips held immobile against the bed by Dean's strong hands.

Dean's mouth slid up and down Sam's length, slow to start, taking Sam in until he knocked against Dean's throat then drawing back even slower than he'd pushed down. Sam's tongue traced around Dean's opening, Sam's teeth sank into the tender flesh there, groaning into Dean's skin while Dean moaned around his girth.

Sam breathed out against the wetness of Dean, sending shivers through the older man before sending heat through him with the hot wet slide of his tongue into Dean's ass. He teased Dean for a bit with his tongue, slipping it just inside before withdrawing it, little licks inside of Dean, making Dean hungrier and hungrier for it - then he plunged deep into his brother, licking him deep inside. Dean couldn't help bucking back against Sam's face, shoving Sam's tongue deeper into him, Sam's beard ravaging the velvet softness of Dean's ass and Dean started sinking down deeper on Sam's cock, letting it fill his throat as his vocal cords vibrated against it.

Sam couldn't help bucking against Dean's hold on him, trying to fuck deeper into Dean's throat, but Dean's grip only grew stronger which only drove Sam closer to climax. Sam thrust his tongue into Dean and stroked at his prostate, his knot beginning to balloon as Dean's lips slid down towards it over and over, closer and closer, faster and faster, and Sam felt Dean's muscles beginning to pull tight around his tongue as it fucked inside and Sam sucked at Dean's rim.

Sam bit into Dean to muffle his cry as Dean's lips wrapped around his fully grown knot, and his come pumped deep into Dean's throat. Dean moved back until only the head of Sam's cock filled his mouth and he drank Sam's orgasm down. Sam's fingers slid down and into Dean to pull him open further so that Sam could shove deeper into him, and Dean tossed his head back to cry out as he came, taut around Sam's tongue, shooting down Sam's chest and belly.

Sam pulled back and licked Dean clean before they both released their hold on each other and fell back to the bed breathless.

After a minute, Dean leaned over to lick up the mess he'd made on Sam's body, smirking up at Sam as he gave Sam's dick another lick.

"You cheated," he husked into Sam's hip before kissing it. "You used your fingers."

"Are you complaining?"

"Fuck no." Dean huffed with laughter before letting his gaze drift over Sam's gleaming muscled body, Sam's bearded face glistening with sweat and slick. "God... you're still so damn sexy. What the hell do you still want me for?"

"Why the hell _wouldn't_ I still want you? Just because you don't see how hot _you_ still are."

Dean smiled softly. "Dunno about that. I'm pushing sixty now."

"Put the 'sex' in 'sexagenarian'," Sam murmured, tiredly leaning over to suck softly at Dean's throat, smiling against the skin when Dean laughed and playfully shoved at him.

"That's it - I'm divorcing you, Mr. Singer."

::

The next day was a Saturday and Jo drifted out of the bunker to breathe in the cool clean spring air, unbothered by the gray sky drizzling down on her now and then.

Her brother and sister were hiding away in their respective rooms; Jo had popped into Ben's room to find him determinedly doing homework and even more determinedly ignoring the insistent buzz of his phone as his girlfriend texted. Charlie had stashed food in her room and emerged only to whip in and out of the bathroom occasionally before locking herself back in her room and shoving her headphones back on. Jo asked if she was okay and Charlie barked at Jo to stop mothering her and mind her own business.

Dean was home, and Sam had gone to check on Jack and Bobby in Sioux Falls, meaning he'd be gone until morning. Dean had also attempted talking to Charlie, and Charlie had responded much more gently to him. She'd always been so fond of her Omega father.

Jo wondered if Charlie knew that Dean had initially been against having his daughters. Probably not, since Jo only knew about that from listening to Dean's thoughts, and only Jo seemed to be able to do that.

Jo loved both of her fathers tremendously. She understood why Dean had felt that way when he'd learned he was pregnant with Sam's children. The fear he'd felt. The fear he continued to feel even after they'd been born. But if Charlie knew that Dean had originally not wanted her... Jo didn't know if Charlie would still have the same affection for him.

Jo didn't know if Charlie would still have the same affection for _her_ if Charlie found out Jo had been reading her thoughts. Jo shut her eyes, tipped her head back against the tree she sat in front of.

Opened her eyes suddenly as she felt something cold curl around her neck, and she looked to her side to see the crimson body of a snake slithering down the tree and onto her.

She panicked for a second before ordering herself to stay calm. She closed her eyes once more and, almost as easily as the snake wound itself around her throat, she wound her will around its own, twisting until it obeyed and released her from its grasp.

She watched it move away from her across the ground - watched it as it reached shiny black shoes. Her eyes lifted to find the King of Hell standing before her, head cocked with a smile.

"How did you do that, love?"

"Uncle Crowley?" She stood from the ground and was careful not to answer the question, narrowing her eyes at the demon king. "What are you doing here?"

"Watching over the Winchesters," answered Crowley with a sly smile that suggested he knew Jo was sidestepping. "You're an entertaining lot."

"Entertaining to set snakes on?"

"I didn't _set_ her on you," Crowley protested, soothing the snake as she curled herself around his arm. "Samantha was saying hello to you. She lacks a voicebox." Crowley kissed her and stroked her lovingly. Jo laughed.

"You named that snake after my dad? Better not let him find out."

Crowley scoffed. "You think I named her Samantha after your father? Why would I do that, that would be absurd. If I was going to name her after your dad, I'd call her Moose, and she doesn't quite strike me as a Moose."

Jo smirked. "So, you've been watching us?"

"Best show on television, although it's getting rather angsty these days. But I suppose I should expect that from teenagers."

"Then you know about Ben and Charlie."

"I do know about that." Crowley cocked his head again. "And here you are, a different beast." Jo frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Crowley shook his head. "Figure of speech, darling," he said as he brushed Jo's hair away from her eyes, Samantha flicking her tongue at Jo. "I'm also aware that your sister took off her bracelet yesterday, but I'm not sure I understand the reason why - I was hoping you could explain it to me."

"Why don't you ask her?"

"She doesn't seem to be in a very conversational mood. And you're her twin, I figured you would have some insight."

"We're not the same person," Jo muttered nervously, "it's not like I can see into her head."

Crowley squinted at her with amusement. "Can't you?"

Now Jo began to feel worried with what Crowley was insinuating. She backed away from him and combed her hair back over her eyes.

"I'm gonna go back inside. If you have questions for Charlie, ask her yourself," Jo said before she hurried back into the bunker, Crowley smirking as he watched her run away.

::

Sam returned to the bunker the next afternoon and cautiously knocked on Charlie's door. He didn't have to announce it was him, he knew his scent gave him away. He caught Charlie's scent, bitter with guilt and shame. She reluctantly opened her door, greeting him with a raised eyebrow that invited him to fuck off.

Then her eyes fell to the brand new stereo he was carrying.

"Peace offering?"

Charlie rolled her eyes. "Ugh, you're such a homo," she flung at him, mostly but not full of derision, and Sam couldn't help being reminded of Dean's affectionate insults. "Alright, whatever, come in."

Sam entered the room and closed the door behind him. He set the new stereo down in the place where the old one had been.

"This doesn't make it cool that you wrecked my shit for no reason, man."

"I know it doesn't," said Sam. "This is because I owed you a stereo."

Charlie's jaw clenched. "Alright. Well, guess you can get gone now then."

"Charlie... I'm sorry."

"What the hell are you sorry for? You sorry that I was born, sorry you have such a fuckup for a kid?" Charlie sat on the edge of her bed glaring at the floor.

"You're not a fuckup," whispered Sam, slowly approaching and sitting beside her. "And, for as long as I live, come what may, I will be proud and grateful to be your father."

The teenager's jaw clenched even further, tightly controlled emotion on her face.

"You're just saying that because you feel like you have to."

"No, I'm not. Charlie, look at me, please."

Charlie took a deep breath before turning to meet Sam's eyes, and her green eyes shone with unshed tears.

"I know what this is like. What it's like to be an Alpha, what it's like to struggle with that." Sam cleared his throat when his voice began to break. "And I'm sorry that you have to struggle with it too, it... I wish so much that you didn't. But I _mean_ it when I say I'm proud of and grateful for you, you'll never know how very much."

Charlie found only honesty in his eyes and in his scent. She turned away from him again, tried to hide her feelings away. She looked down at the black band on her wrist, fidgeted with it.

She cleared her throat before speaking. "You went through the same thing I did, your rut, without one of these. Without... without the ability to stay human."

Sam swallowed hard, said nothing.

"What I said," Charlie began quietly, "I didn't mean to say that shit but I couldn't stop it from coming out. There was this stupid part of me that wanted to fight you, over Ben... over D... over everything, and that stupid part took over." Charlie sniffed and rubbed at her face. "Just... all this _anger_ and I couldn't hold it back." She hid her face in her hand.

"I know," said Sam, draping his arm over her shoulders. "Believe me, I know."

"I'm so scared of what it did to me," Charlie gasped into her hand. "And I'm sorry for what I said, Dad, I'm so sorry."

Sam sniffed as well, holding tears back. "You have nothing to be sorry for. I have everything to be sorry for; I didn't only hurt your dad that day. It hurts me so much to have done that, to have been the person who caused that pain."

Charlie shook her head fiercely, meeting his eyes again. "But that monster isn't who you are. I know that now." Sam nodded with a teary smile.

"What I'm most sorry for," he said softly, "is not being here for you when you needed me, and I'll never let that happen again."

Tears finally spilled from Charlie's eyes and she sobbed as she curled herself into her father's arms, and he lovingly kissed the top of her head as he whispered, "My baby."


	11. Chapter 11

AC/DC's Back In Black blasted from the kitchen as Charlie entered it. Dean was at the stove frying way too much bacon for five people; he turned and grinned.

"There's my little ray of sunshine! Take a seat, breakfast comin' right up."

Charlie snatched a piece of bacon from the pan as she passed him, hissing as it burned her mouth before shooting a grin back at her father.

"Do you actually like listening to this shitkicker music or is it just that your fragile masculinity forces you to?"

Dean glared. "You know, kid, I made you, and I can unmake you."

"First death threat of the day," Charlie yawned as she poured a glass of orange juice. "Today's gonna be fun, I can tell."

Dean turned back to the stove to hide his smile and to finish cooking the bacon. But before the bacon could finish, Sam's arms slid around him and Sam's mouth met his ear.

"Good morning," Sam whispered into Dean's ear. Dean turned to kiss him in greeting. Charlie coughed loudly behind them, her cough sounding suspiciously like the word _gay_. Sam and Dean grinned.

_She's back_ , said Dean in Sam's mind as he pulled away, and Sam replied with, _You tell me whether that's a good thing or a bad thing._

Sam poured himself some orange juice, started making toast and cutting up fruit. He set the breakfast table as their other two kids came sleepily and hungrily into the kitchen, joining Charlie where she sat at the table.

"So, you're off today?" Sam asked Dean as he brought the eggs and bacon Dean had cooked to the table. Dean nodded at him. Dean usually did work Mondays but he'd requested the day off after the exhausting week they'd all just gone through.

"I'll take the kids to school," said Sam, sitting with his kids at the table. "You guys all going in today?"

"I'm staying home," said Charlie, eyes on the table. "Just need another day to... recuperate."

"More like you'll take any chance you can get to skip school," muttered Ben. Charlie stuck her pierced tongue out at him.

"Hey, that's okay, kiddo," said Dean, sitting beside Charlie and patting her arm, "you can stay home today. Any of you guys can stay home if you want." Dean's eyes flickered concernedly over Ben.

Ben wondered if that concern was justified. He had just become an Omega, had just gotten over the first heat of his life, and the balance that had once existed in his family had been upended. The balance that had once existed within _him_ had been upended. He could stay home too. Maybe he should.

Maybe he should never go back to school at all, because going back meant facing his girlfriend and her questions that he could not truthfully answer.

But then what would his life be... hiding away inside a bunker from everyone but his family... slowly but steadily losing his sanity. He wasn't going to hide. He was a Winchester, and Winchesters did not hide.

"I'm going," said Ben firmly. His fathers nodded at him and smiled proudly.

"Found a job in town today," Sam announced and Dean's eyebrows raised.

"A job?"

"Electrical repair - someone's washer on the fritz."

"Ah, Handyman Sam at it again," said Dean grinning as he tore into his bacon. "How long you gonna be out?"

"Couple hours, should be done early afternoon with some time before school gets out so I'll take the kids there and pick 'em back up later."

"Sounds good to me. I'll whip up some enchiladas for dinner, think we got everything to make 'em."

The rest of the table cheered at this; Dean's chicken enchiladas, which he served with Mexican rice and homemade refried beans, were a specialty of his and beloved by the whole family. Ben wondered how his dads had managed before they'd found the bunker, living in motel rooms, eating food from microwaves... Sam didn't cook often but Dean loved to cook and it was hard to imagine him living without a kitchen. Dean had passed that love of cooking down to Jo, but neither Charlie nor Ben liked cooking much, content to eat whatever their father or their sister made for them.

Ben ate quickly and returned to his room to get ready for school. He threw on Dean's old Master of Puppets shirt; too tight on Dean these days but it hung off Ben's thin frame. He paired it with some baggy black jeans, swept the length of his hair to one side and put some gel in it. He pulled Jack's necklace out from under the collar of his shirt and looked down at the little Celtic knot in his hand.

Sam had gone to visit Jack and Bobby in the hospital. Part of Ben had wanted to tag along with Sam... but another part had felt uncomfortable with the idea of being alone with Sam after what had happened. And although Ben wished he could help Bobby, wished he could do that for Jack, there was nothing he could do aside from turning Bobby into a monster like him and he knew that was something the old hunter would never want. Ben gripped the Celtic knot tightly in his hand, wishing his brother strength.

There was a knock on Ben's door, and Sam's scent floated through it. Ben's stomach turned.

"Time to go?" Ben asked the door, grabbing his backpack.

"Not yet," Sam answered, then went silent for a second before asking, "Can I come in for a minute?"

Ben's heart thumped hard. He considered saying no, then sighed and answered, "Sure."

Sam opened the door and lingered there, looking his son over, then he too sighed and stepped into the room, leaving the door open behind him as he sat at the end of Ben's bed.

"Please don't be scared of me," Sam quietly begged. "I'm the same dad I've always been. I would die before I ever hurt you, or your brother or your sisters."

"And my other dad?" Ben tried to stop shaking.

"I would die before ever hurting him again," Sam whispered, holding Ben's gaze steady. "I wanted to die for what I did..."

"But there's no way in hell I'd ever allow that to happen," said Dean, standing at the open door. Dean's narrowed eyes moved from his brother to his son, and he moved to stand in front of Ben, cupping the boy's face in his hand.

"You remember what I told you, Benny?" Dean asked him. "Your dad and I love you. There's no need to be afraid of your dad, no need to be afraid of any Alpha." He gently smoothed Ben's hair back. "Please, believe us on that."

Ben's gaze traveled over Dean's face before moving over to Sam, focusing intensely on the Alpha. Ben licked his lips.

"Okay," he said with a nod, looking between his fathers, then he sighed and moved away from Dean to pick up his backpack again. He aimed a tiny smile at Sam. "Ready to go." Sam gave him the same smile, squeezed his shoulder, and Ben suppressed a shiver as he followed his father to the garage where Jo was waiting for them.

After Sam dropped him and Jo off at school, Ben anxiously scanned the teenage faces around him for his girlfriend but couldn't find her. He took his phone out of his pocket and looked at the last several messages he'd sent her; she'd been silent since Saturday night, which he guessed he deserved since he'd been largely ignoring her texts and calls.

_I'm so sorry_ , his last message read, _please, please text me back._ He had no idea what to say to her, how to explain himself, but he just didn't want her to be upset.

He looked up again and through the crowd he saw a familiar face.

"Matt!"

He ran up to the boy that he'd called out to. Kat's older brother Matt turned to him; a skinny kid like Ben with olive skin like Kat and a buzz cut. Matt raised an uncertain eyebrow at Ben.

"Hey."

"Hey," Ben said in answer. "I've, um... been trying to get a hold of Kat, do you know where she is?"

Matt's eyes narrowed. "She went to her class."

"Do you know if she got my messages?"

"She got it, and I don't think she wants to talk to you."

Ben sighed. "I know it's a messed up situation, I just-"

"No, you don't know," Matt countered angrily. "You haven't seen her crying, wondering why the hell you weren't answering her when she was trying to talk to you, but I have, and I don't appreciate you making my little sister cry, so how about you just stay away from her? And me," Matt finished, burning Ben with one last glare before he turned and walked away.

Ben wiped his hand down his face. _Today is definitely gonna be fun._

Kat was in none of his classes, and she sat with Matt at lunch. She caught Ben's eyes as he looked over at them, pain flitted into her expression, and she turned away.

Ben sat and ate by himself, trying to keep sadness at bay.

_Probably better that I stay away from her_ , he thought miserably. He was a werewolf and she was a human. He was an Omega on top of being a werewolf - if he ever got as far as third base, how was he supposed to explain Omega slick to a human? Even if he'd been Alpha, he would have had issues explaining Alpha knots.

But what were his options then... stay away from humans... and screw his sister? That was not an option he wanted to consider. So celibacy it was. Stay the hell away from everyone.

School dragged on, in that way it likes to do when everything sucks, and Ben sighed with what was either relief or resignation when he finally set foot back in the bunker that late afternoon. As he walked down the hallway to his room, he heard Charlie singing and playing guitar in her room. The Kinks. Ben smiled and followed the sound to her open door, finding his sister with her hair a tangle around her face, wearing a wifebeater and yellow Spongebob pajama pants.

" _Girls will be boys and boys will be girls, it's a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook up world 'cept for Lola_ ," Charlie sang as she strummed her sky-blue Stratocaster. She looked up at him and smiled, her hands stilling. "Hey buddy, how was it? Hell? Worse?"

"Worse," he answered, smile slipping off his face as he slumped against the doorframe. Charlie nodded with solemn understanding, setting her guitar aside and walking over to him.

"You come with me," she said, grabbing him by the shoulders and pushing him down the hallway. "Got something that'll make you feel better."

_An Alpha knot_ , jeered the traitorous Omega within him that didn't care that the Alpha was his sister, that reveled in the strength of her grip on his shoulders, but he quickly silenced that voice.

Charlie brought him into the bunker's firing range. She picked up a .45 and spun it on her finger before holding it out to Ben.

"I promise, this'll help," she said, "I did this earlier and felt way better afterwards. Just take this gun, point it at that target, imagine it's God and just FUCK that guy up."

"He's in Heaven's jail though, he doesn't control us anymore."

"Yeah but he made this world and all the fucked up things in it, so I say he's got it coming." Charlie grinned as Ben took the gun. "Or just picture whoever's pissing you off and shoot 'em."

Ben studied the gun in his hand for a minute, then he turned to face one of the bullethole-ridden targets on the far wall. In his mind, the lines of the target shifted to reflect his own features; the Omega within himself whose only concern was getting knotted by an Alpha, who didn't care that he loved Kat or that he wanted Charlie to remain his sister, who laughed and taunted and tormented him. He raised the gun, narrowed his eyes, held it steady and he fired.

::

Charlie's eyes scanned the PE field from her perch atop the equipment shed. She checked the time again, confirming that the girl named Zora was supposed to be out there. Charlie's forehead creased in unhappiness as she continued to fruitlessly scan the field.

"Hey!"

Charlie jumped at the sound of the voice behind her and the movement knocked her off the top of the shed - she shouted in alarm as she fell to the ground, cursed at the pain in the wrist she'd landed on, then nervously brought her eyes up to meet the owner of the voice. It was Zora.

Zora's eyebrows knitted together. "You okay?" she asked worriedly, brushing her multicolored braids away from her face and eyeing Charlie's wrist. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Charlie shook her head and got to her feet. "I'm fine," she mumbled. Her heart thumped as she met Zora's gaze again. Zora smirked.

"What were you doing up there?"

"I, um... I like it up there."

"Yeah? Comfy?"

Zora's eyes sparkled with mischief. _She should not be allowed to be this beautiful_ , thought Charlie as her heart pounded harder.

"Yeah, totally," Charlie lied. "Totally comfy."

"With a good view, huh?" Charlie gulped as Zora stepped closer to her, smile spreading across her face. "I saw you watching me."

"I... I wasn't... I was just watching you guys suffer out there, I like watching people suffer."

Zora's smile only grew as she drew nearer, her eyes traveling from the spike through Charlie's septum to the stretchers in her ears, her scent driving Charlie wild with hunger.

"You like pain, don't you," Zora murmured as her fingers slipped around Charlie's wrist, thumb brushing the bracelet that leashed Charlie's animal instincts.

_Fuck_. Charlie was pretty sure Zora could feel her pulse racing under those fingers. And she was pretty sure she should get away from this girl, from this human who was unknowingly toying with a werewolf... but she didn't want to move away from her, not at all.

Then someone called out to Zora and the two girls turned to see a tall, redheaded and muscled boy eyeing them suspiciously. "You're gonna get in trouble if the coach sees you," he warned Zora. She dismissed his warning with a silky soft laugh.

"Relax," she replied and continued smiling at Charlie. "I should probably get back to my suffering though. What's your name?"

Charlie just stared stupidly at her for several seconds before realizing she'd been asked a question. "Uh, Charlie, I'm Charlie."

Zora laughed again and Charlie shivered. "Alright. Seeya tomorrow, Charlie." She winked and pulled away from Charlie, and Charlie inwardly mourned the loss of Zora's touch on her skin, staring after her as she set off running down the field with her friend. She watched the two of them joking and laughing together, resentment creeping over her like a shadow.

They were probably laughing about what a freak Charlie was. A pierced, mohawked, six-foot freak sitting on top of a shed spying on girls in PE, stumbling and stammering like an idiot when she was caught at it.

Not even aware of how much of a freak she really was.

Charlie turned and headed miserably back to her class. As she walked, she smelled something that almost smelled like another Alpha, but she shook her head at her foolishness. It couldn't be. The only other Alpha she'd ever met was her Alpha father. And it couldn't be Jo suddenly presenting Alpha, she knew Jo's scent better than anyone else's and it wasn't hers. She was probably just imagining it, like how she'd probably just imagined Zora flirting with her back at the field. Charlie was going fucking crazy.

She was relieved to get back home that Tuesday afternoon, back to the only sanity she knew. It was family movie night, her dads had picked up pizza and rented Back to the Future, and the family was settled in the bunker's TV room (formerly the Fortress of Deanitude). The dads were on one of the room's two couches (Sam sitting with Dean's feet in his lap) and the sisters were on the other (sitting with their feet together in the middle) while Ben was on the floor in a nest of pillows and blankets and candy.

"That's the only car I want," Jo said dreamily as she watched the DeLorean speed across the screen and disappear in a path of flame.

"You - are you _serious_?" Dean spluttered in response and Charlie snickered. "That little _tin can_? Whose child are you because you're definitely not mine."

"Can the Impala fly and travel through time? Yeah, I thought not." Jo smirked.

"So that means I get the Impala, right?" asked Ben hopefully. "Jo gets the tin can and I get the good car. And Charlie gets the skateboard."

Charlie snorted. "Excuse you?"

"Excuse _you_ , butthead," said Ben, kicking at her. She grabbed his foot and started mercilessly tickling it, making her little brother cry with laughter.

The sound of someone pounding on metal reverberated through the bunker - someone was at the bunker's door. Charlie let go of Ben's foot and the family frowned collectively.

"Maybe it's Jack again," said Sam. He started to push Dean's feet off his lap but Charlie stood and stopped him.

"I'll answer it," she said, "I didn't even say hi to Jack when he was here."

She made her way to the bunker's door, and upon opening it, she was met with a frantic Claire Novak.

"Claire, holy shit, it's been forever!" she exclaimed, pulling the hunter into a tight hug. She smiled as she pulled back, but the smile faded at the look on Claire's face.

"What's wrong?"

"Is Jack here?" Claire asked anxiously.

"No... why?"

"I went to the hospital in Sioux Falls. Bobby - Apocalypse Bobby - he's dead."

Charlie's heart sank. "Oh god. Jack... wait, Jack wasn't there?"

"No," Claire whispered. "I thought... if he wasn't there, I thought I'd find him here. I've been trying to call him, he's not answering."

"Bobby's dead?" Charlie turned to see Sam coming up the stairs, concern etched deep on his face. He took his phone out of his pocket, dialed Jack's number and listened to the answering ringtone and the voicemail message. Charlie called Jack as well, to no avail. The three looked at each other, fear in their eyes.

::

Movie night was cut short but the family was too concerned about Jack to care much about movie night. No one had any luck reaching him. Claire was invited to spend the night since she'd driven so far, and she was given Jack's room to sleep in; from the looks of her on Wednesday morning, sleep had been a challenge.

Her bleached blonde hair was chopped below her ears these days and she made a half-hearted attempt to comb it with her fingers as she shuffled into the kitchen, drawn by the smell of the breakfast Dean and Jo were making.

"Hey," Jo gently greeted her. The corners of Claire's mouth flicked upward in an imitation of a smile. "Hey," Claire said back, leaning against the island. "Still no word from your brother?"

Jo shook her head. Claire bit her lip and nodded.

"Have a seat," said Dean, "breakfast is almost done."

"No, I should go," said Claire with a sigh. "Thanks for letting me stay. Just... let me know when you hear from Jack?"

Dean assured her they would and he and Jo hugged Claire before watching her go. Afterward, the rest of the family trickled slowly into the kitchen but no one ate very much.

Sam set off looking for Jack and Dean dropped the kids at school before heading to work. Before the kids left the car, Dean assured them that Sam would find their brother, that Jack would turn up; Dean telling himself that as much as he was telling his kids.

Jo sat through her classes without taking much in. She tried to see if she could reach her mind out to Jack's without him being near and without knowing where he was, and she was unsurprised when that didn't work. She tried praying to Castiel, but again, was unsurprised when that didn't work either.

At lunch, she set off for her usual secluded corner of the school, but she stopped when she caught the scent of an angry Alpha. Charlie's scent. She followed it to find Charlie facing a tall red-haired boy, whose anger equaled Charlie's.

"Fuckin' dyke," the boy spat at Charlie, "why are you stalking her, what makes you think she would actually like a freak like you?"

"I wasn't stalking anybody, you dumb fucking hick," Charlie shot back, hands curled into fists at her sides. "I was saying hi to her, that's all, so leave me the fuck alone."

"Yeah, well, she doesn't want you to say hi to her." The boy loomed closer to Charlie. "She thinks you're a freak too and she doesn't wanna talk to you."

"I think," Charlie hissed, "that she can speak for herself."

"What part of _she doesn't wanna talk to you_ aren't you getting, bitch?" The boy fisted a hand in the front of Charlie's shirt, his other fist drawn back menacingly. _Oh fuck._ Jo's eyes widened and her heart pounded as she watched her sister's eyes begin to glow with inhuman rage and she watched blood begin to drip from Charlie's hands where claws were sinking into flesh. Jo had to stop this boy because if she didn't, Charlie would kill him.

Jo shut her eyes, and like she had done with the snake in the forest, she reached out with the power of her mind and she infiltrated the boy's. She made him release her sister and back away, and with more effort, she made him believe that he would get into very serious trouble if he fought Charlie. Which was the truth really. The boy looked around him, befuddled, but Jo was hidden from his and Charlie's sight.

The boy looked Charlie up and down nervously and then left without saying another word. Charlie stared after him, squinting in confusion.

Jo walked up to her sister, watching her twin's eyes return to normal and her hands unclench, blood-slicked but clawless. "What the hell was that?" Jo asked to mask what she'd just done, pretending to know as little about it as Charlie. Charlie just stared at her for a long moment, until Jo almost felt the mask slipping, and then the younger twin shook her head and breathed out.

"I don't know," Charlie muttered, looking down at her bloody hands. "That fucking psycho asshole."

"Come on, let's go wash your hands," insisted Jo as she ushered them toward the bathroom.

As they went, Jo caught a strange scent. It almost reminded her of her family's scent, but at the same time, so very different. And it wasn't Charlie's scent, _that_ she knew. But this scent... it didn't belong to a human.

It belonged to a werewolf like them.


	12. Chapter 12

"I think there's a werewolf at our school."

The Winchesters, sans Sam and Jack, were gathered around a half-assed dinner of leftover pizza. Dean and Ben raised identical eyebrows at Jo as they continued eating. Charlie stopped cold and stared at Jo.

"I caught their scent. At lunch," said Jo, looking questioningly at Charlie. "Did you-"

"You caught it too?"

Jo answered Charlie's question with a firm nod.

"A werewolf," said Dean with eyes narrowed. "So we're talkin' a run-of-the-mill teen wolf here?"

"Not a regular werewolf. One of us."

"Are you sure - are both of you sure - that it _wasn't_ one of us sitting here?"

"It wasn't," insisted Charlie. "I know Jo's scent, I know Ben's. It wasn't theirs and it wasn't mine. And I smelled an Alpha. You said we were the only Alpha and Omega werewolves out there, but I don't think we are."

_An Alpha._ The Omega within Ben quivered with need.

Dean looked worriedly between his daughters and then at his son. He sighed and shook his head. "Just when I think life's about to calm back down, Apocalypse Bobby dies, Jack goes missing and now this. Alright, after I drop you three off tomorrow, I'll scout out the school. See if I find anything."

Sam didn't come home that night, still out searching for Jack, but Dean called Sam on speaker with the kids present so they'd know their father was safe. Jo studied her sister from across the table. Charlie raised an eyebrow and Jo shook her head.

"Why do you keep looking at me?" inquired Charlie as they headed for their bedrooms. Jo eyed her twin a moment more.

_You're an Alpha._

"This is something I'm aware of."

_This possible werewolf may also be an Alpha. Alphas, in my observation, can be dangerous around each other._ Charlie grunted her acknowledgement. _Are you at some point going to tell me why that guy at school wanted to fight you?_

"Can we... I don't want to talk about it. Just trust me, it won't happen again, okay? I was stupid. I won't be stupid like that again." There was sadness in Charlie's voice.

"Just... please be careful, sis," Jo whispered as they reached Charlie's door. Charlie bit her lip and didn't meet Jo's eyes as she disappeared behind her bedroom door.

::

Charlie turned warily at the sound of someone calling her name, and her wariness grew when she saw it was Zora.

Zora fought her way through the throng of teenagers making their way to their classrooms. "Hey," she said with a smile when she reached Charlie. "I didn't see you at PE."

Charlie smiled bitterly. "Yeah, well, I'm not supposed to be there, right?"

"Pfff please, like the coach cares, sneaking shots out of his flask while he bosses us around."

"Your friend definitely seems to care."

Zora's eyes widened.

"My friend?"

"The big dude with the red hair." Charlie scowled. "Told me you both think I'm a freak and I should stay away from you."

Zora's mouth dropped open and her eyes narrowed in angry disbelief. "Did he say that to you? Oh my god, I'm so sorry - he is _not_ my friend, he's just someone in my class who talks to me... he started being weird after I talked to you though, so I stopped talking to him."

Charlie sighed. "He's probably right. I probably should stay away from you."

"Why?"

So many reasons Charlie should give, and yet, not a single one that she could.

"Don't listen to that idiot," Zora insisted. "I don't want you to stay away from me." Zora moved closer to Charlie with a hopeful smile.

_Jo said to be careful. This - talking to this girl - this is not being careful._ As the girl drew closer, Charlie breathed in her tantalizing scent. Her tantalizing human scent. Charlie wanted to taste her...

Charlie felt her fangs descending and she forced herself to back away from Zora.

"I have to go," she muttered as she joined the kids around her running to their classrooms. Hating herself for leaving Zora. But it was the right thing to do, she told herself. She was a werewolf and she couldn't get too close to a human.

Especially not now, when the full moon drew near.

Dean collected the kids from school that afternoon and told them he hadn't found any trace of werewolves at their school, much less any other werewolves like them. Probably the impending full moon screwing with their senses, he reasoned, though he didn't sound convinced of this and anxiety filled the car.

Sam returned home late that night; his search for Jack had turned up nothing, his scent was saturated with despair, and sleep didn't come easy to any of the Winchesters.

::

The Winchesters were sitting haggard in the bunker's kitchen, clutching cups of coffee and ignoring the cereal in front of them, when Castiel and Jack reappeared. The Winchesters squinted groggily at the new arrivals for half a second, then five pairs of eyes flew wide open.

Sam and Dean launched themselves at Castiel and Jack, wrapping them up in fierce hugs, and the three younger Winchesters followed suit.

"Where the hell were both of you?" Dean demanded with mingled anger and relief.

"Heaven," Jack answered, smiling at Sam whose hand gripped his shoulder like he was afraid to let go.

"I wasn't able to bring Bobby back to life," Castiel explained, "but I was able to bring him to Heaven, and I was able to bring Jack with me to visit Bobby there."

"I just wanted to say goodbye," Jack whispered. "After all he's done for me... I just wanted to thank him and say goodbye."

Sam sniffed and nodded and pulled Jack into another hug. "We're so sorry, Jack," he whispered. Dean's arms went around both of them, and one by one, the rest of the family joined the hug.

::

Saturday arrived and the full moon hung threateningly above their heads, waiting for nightfall to emerge.

"I wish you could stick around," Ben said to Jack sadly. "You sure you're gonna be okay?"

"I'm a Winchester," replied Jack with a wink. "Of course I'm gonna be okay. And I'll be back soon." Ben gave Jack a relieved smile and the brothers hugged tightly.

The family was equal parts sad and relieved to see Jack go; however much they wished he could stay, he was a human and it was dangerous for him to do so. Although for some reason, the full moon madness didn't seem to hit the elder Winchesters quite as hard as it did their children - they put it down to Sam and Dean being turned into werewolves, as opposed to their kids who'd been born werewolves.

And that full moon madness seemed to worsen as the moons went by. The hunger was becoming increasingly difficult to control.

Sam and Jo were in the woods hunting for food to sustain their family through the full moon. These woods were not the woods surrounding the bunker, however; the woods around the bunker had long been cleared of game, since the Winchesters had begun hunting there. These woods were nearly an hour away from the bunker, and Sam and Jo were fortunate enough to track down both a deer and a rabbit; Sam took care of the deer while his daughter handled the rabbit.

Jo gazed up at the faint circle of the moon in the afternoon sky above them as they loaded the carcasses onto the tarp that lined the bed of Sam's truck, wrapping the tarp around their cargo.

"So," said Sam with a clearing of his throat that signaled nervousness, "your dad was telling me that you guys said you smelled another werewolf at your school?" He glanced at Jo before returning his eyes to the road as he drove them home.

"I dunno," Jo answered. "D checked the school out after dropping us off and said he didn't catch any strange werewolf scents. If there was something, he would have found it, right?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah. He would have."

"Probably just the moon screwing with us."

Sam nodded once more and they were silent for the remainder of the drive, nerves heightening as the sky darkened.

They got home shortly before nightfall and brought their kill inside the bunker, carrying it in the tarp and setting it down on the floor of the kitchen. Dean locked the bunker down before joining them in the kitchen. The entire family grimaced at the sight of the carcasses.

"Dead deer and dead rabbit, lucky us," Charlie muttered.

"Luck has nothing to do with this," Ben muttered back. "This is what we need, and it's better than killing people."

The three young Winchesters all shuddered at the thought of killing a human, and their shuddering was equal parts horror and desire.

Night fell, and the Winchesters fell with it.

They collapsed to the floor, whimpering and growling as their human forms became that of wolves: Sam a huge brown wolf and Dean smaller with golden fur, Jo and Charlie with Sam's shade of brown fur but the same size as Dean, and Ben smaller than the rest with Dean's coloring.

The young Winchesters immediately and ravenously tore into the dead animals laying on the floor while their parents sat back and waited for them to finish, Sam licking affectionately around Dean's face while Dean playfully snapped at him.

When the younger wolves stopped eating, the Alpha girl had sniffed interestedly at her Omega brother, then moved in to lick him in the same way Sam had been licking Dean but Ben snapped viciously at Charlie, warning her to keep her distance. Charlie bristled but backed off, trotting out of the kitchen.

Sam and Dean came forward to eat but Ben growled at them, crouching possessively over the animal remains. The parents flicked their ears back in distress but they too backed off, leaving the kitchen to prowl the halls of the bunker. Jo eyed her brother a moment before she too left him.

Charlie had climbed up to the bunker's door and was shoving at it and whining helplessly, wanting out. Jo empathized, but she turned down the hallway that led to her room.

She curled up in a corner of her room, trembling as her wolf instincts urged her to leave this place and run through the night and bury her fangs in warm flesh, in human flesh, to take a human's life into her, and the human part of her fought for control - and suddenly her whimpers were no longer that of a wolf, but of a human. Her eyes snapped open and she looked down, awed and afraid, to find she had shifted back into human form.

_This is fucking new._

She had always been able to retain her consciousness in either human or wolf form, able to remember herself while her family members forgot themselves as wolves - but she'd never before been able to shift willingly out of wolf form. Did this mean she could also turn into a wolf at will?

Charlie howled at the bunker's door, Ben answered her howl from the kitchen, and Jo thought of how Ben had rebuked Charlie when she'd started sniffing at him. Jo was reminded of the full moons when Sam had tried to move on Dean and had been turned away - the only times Dean hadn't turned Sam away had been when his heat had coincided with the full moon, which hadn't happened often. Jo wondered what would happen if one of Ben's heats struck him during a full moon with Charlie around. When, not if. It would happen eventually.

Then Jo sensed her parents approaching and she started to panic. What would they do if they found her like this? She didn't want to know. She didn't want her family to know about this - she didn't want her own family to fear her, because she was starting to fear herself.

She'd shifted by letting the human part of her take control, so she closed her eyes and let the wolf part of her take it back, unsure if it would shift her back but hoping it would. She slowly reopened her eyes, and was relieved to find herself staring down at paws again. Relieved, and still a little scared.

Her Omega father nosed her door open and her Alpha father stuck his head in the room as well, and upon finding her safe, they continued down the hall towards their other two children. Jo curled back up on the floor, sighed heavily, and resolved to stay like that until her body succumbed to sleep.

She woke up on Sunday morning as a human, groaning and sprawling herself out on the floor she'd used as a bed.

She laid there for a minute, thinking of what she'd done the night before... she closed her eyes, then reopened them as a wolf.

Another secret to keep. At this point, she felt like she was made up of secrets.

A strange scent snuck into her nostrils. It didn't belong to any of her family members. It didn't belong to anyone she'd met before... but it did belong to someone whose scent she had caught fleetingly on her high school campus. She bolted upright, shifted back into human form, quickly dressed herself and grabbed a silver knife from under her pillow. Her heart pounding a frightened beat, she began to follow the scent down the hall.

It _was_ the scent of an Alpha. She hadn't been imagining it. But there was another person's scent as well. And this scent was neither Alpha nor Omega but it was a werewolf. It was a werewolf like them. A werewolf like _Jo_.

Before she could give it any more thought, she was faced with the owner of that strange yet familiar scent.

A petite blonde woman, certainly no student at Jo's school and not a faculty member she recognized either. Not anyone she recognized at all. The woman's eyes were stormy gray and her skin was ghostly pale, her platinum hair hanging straight and passing her shoulders. She wore a white sweater that hung off one shoulder, beige pants that clung to her stick-figure legs and tall, expensive-looking leather boots. She was sitting on the edge of the War Room's table, and when her eyes caught Jo's, something like a smile twinged at her mouth. When she spoke, her voice had a foreign accent.

"A pleasure to meet you at last, Miss Winchester."


	13. Chapter 13

Jo's grip tightened on the handle of the knife as she pointed it at the strange woman in the War Room.

"How do you know my name? How did you get in here?"

The woman smirked. "I know a lot more about you than your name." An Italian accent shaped her words. "As for how I got in here, well, locks don't exactly keep people like you and me out of places."

Jo squinted at the woman, knife still pointed at her. "People like you and me?"

"Why don't you put the knife down? We didn't come here to hurt you."

A voice, deep and male and with an Italian accent as well, emerged from the shadows of the library, along with its owner. _The Alpha._ This was the Alpha whose scent Jo and Charlie had caught. He looked a little younger than the woman, maybe in his twenties; he was roughly Dean's height but built like Sam, the muscles of his chest and shoulders straining the fabric of his gray T-shirt, tight blue jeans belted around narrow hips. He had dark brown hair and the same color eyes, his haircut like Dean's but longer on top and swept back. He had a kind face, warm and open unlike the woman's stark and sour-faced countenance. He gazed at the blade in Jo's hand with concern as he moved forward.

"Please, we have much to talk about and we would rather not talk about it like this," the man pleaded.

Suddenly a long curved blade was pressed to the man's throat, and Sam leaned forward to snarl into the man's ear.

"How about like this?"

The man's heart pounded a beat of fear, while the woman only narrowed her eyes at Sam. Dean walked into the room behind Jo, Charlie and Ben following behind him. Dean stood protectively in front of his and Sam's children, glaring the strangers down.

"You break into our home," he began, his tone murderous. "You stalk our children. Who the hell are you and why should we _not_ kill you?"

"We _did not_ come here to hurt you," said the woman, annoyed. "We came here to _help you_."

"And what makes you think we need your help?"

The woman only glared at Sam in response.

"Drop the blade."

Sam just glared back and pressed the blade's edge closer to the man's neck. "You're in no position to be giving orders."

The blade Sam was holding flew out of his hand and across the library, clattering to the floor.

"What was that, about my position?" inquired the woman mockingly. The man broke away from Sam to stand beside the woman. Sam growled as he passed them to join Dean.

"Listen, I know it must be difficult to trust us, when we've come here uninvited," said the man, rubbing at his neck. "And, yes, we have been watching you for a while. It was necessary before speaking to you-"

"Before breaking into our home," Dean corrected him. The man grinned guiltily.

"Yes. Before breaking into your home, which was Silvana's idea, I might add." He gestured to the woman next to him and she shrugged.

"You're former hunters," said Silvana scornfully. "And two of you are Alphas, and I did not want a public confrontation."

"An Alpha _girl_ ," said the man with curiosity. "And an Omega boy! Not very often you see these things. My name is Giò, by the way."

Jo frowned. "Your name is Jo too?" The Alpha laughed.

"Giò, short for Giovanni. And you go by Jo, which is short for Jody, yes?"

"Yeah yeah, you know our names, we know yours, you're from Transylvania or some shit, now how 'bout you tell us what the fuck you came here for?"

Dean side-eyed Charlie, torn between pride in his daughter and the urge to reprimand her.

"We're from Italy," said Giò with a frown. "And we came here to protect her." He gestured to Jo. "She is Dei."

The other four Winchesters turned to look at Jo, and Jo stared at Giò in confusion. "Day? Like a day of the week, what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"D-E-I. Dei," Silvana clarified with a smile. "Like me."

"You keep saying that - what do you mean, I'm like you?"

"We are neither Alpha nor Omega. We are Dei. And Alphas, Omegas, Dei, we are all Children of Romulus."

"Romulus?" repeated Jo. "The first king of Rome?"

Giò nodded. "Yes, the king who gave Rome its name, who along with his twin Remus was nursed by a wolf as an infant. Who grew up to kill his twin brother." Giò grabbed one of the rolling chairs around the map table and sat in it, leaning forward as he continued. "He killed his own brother to gain power, and he was cursed by the gods. This is the part of the story that is not widely known - most who know the myth of Romulus and Remus know that he killed Remus and that he disappeared afterwards, but they do not know what truly happened to him."

Giò gestured to the other chairs around the table, imploring the Winchesters to be seated. Ben eagerly sat beside the Alpha, and with a great deal of reluctance, his family joined him at the table. Sam sat at Ben's other side, grinding his teeth as he glared at the Alpha stranger, while Dean sat at Giò's other side with arms folded and face stony, a barrier between Giò and the girls. Silvana sat on the steps of the library, leaning back on them with her legs crossed, watching the Winchesters coolly.

"Romulus fled into the forest under the light of a full moon," Giò went on. "The gods cursed him to transform into a wolf under every full moon that followed. To show what he was: a beast without conscience, a heartless killer of men. They cursed him with this bloodthirst, and being the cruel gods that they were, they also cursed him to live forever with it. To be unafflicted by disease or injury... to forever punish humanity."

"Live forever?" Dean arched a brow. "Is that part of this whole deal, are we immortal?"

Giò shook his head. "No, we're not. We are not Romulus, but we are his Children - what we call those to whom he spread his curse."

"Is Romulus still alive?"

"He was killed a very long time ago." Giò smiled wryly. "By hunters. Those hunters were the ones who called us Alphas and Omegas - but they remain ignorant of Dei, because Dei are extraordinarily rare."

"So... what exactly are Dei," asked Jo, eyes darting between the two strangers.

"If you look at Alpha, Omega and Dei, they are like the three aspects of our world," said Silvana, idly twirling her foot. "The aspect of a beast, that is the Alpha; the aspect of a human is the Omega; the aspect of a god... that is Dei."

All eyes in the room landed on Jo.

"The aspect of a god?"

Silvana smirked. "Your abilities, would you say they belong to beasts, to humans or to gods?"

_My abilities._ Jo's heart began to race and she looked nervously around at her family. The family she loved. The family she deceived. "What do you know about my abilities?"

"I know that you use your mind in ways that others can't."

_Please don't tell them I can read their minds_ , Jo silently begged. _Please don't tell them how much of a freak and a liar I am._

Silvana went on smirking, and Jo dreaded what would come out of her mouth next.

"Like that, for example. Speaking without opening your mouth. Making things move without touching them." A long pause made Jo's heart race faster. "Opening a locked door with a thought rather than a key. These are things that Dei are capable of. It is believed that Dei came into being as representatives of the gods, created to keep order among the Children."

Jo calmed slightly, but not entirely. She wasn't sure what exactly this woman knew, or why the woman would keep secrets for her... Jo was also unnerved by the fact that she was unable to read these strangers' minds, and she was equally unable to bring up the subject without spilling secrets to her family.

"What do you mean, when you say Alphas are like beasts and Omegas are like humans," said Ben, breaking his nervous silence at last. Giò flashed him a brilliant smile.

"Romulus was an Alpha," said Giò. "Driven by his animal instincts, as all of us Alphas are. You could say... a bit more aggression than Omegas possess. Omegas possess more compassion. They're more gentle, more human. And together... well, they make Children."

Ben flushed as Giò's eyes traveled intently over him. Sam cleared his throat loudly. Angrily.

"So you're saying you turn Alpha if you're more animal and you turn Omega if you're more human?"

"Yes, I suppose," Giò replied, eyeing Sam now. "We are all both but we tend to lean in one direction or the other."

Jo could see how this fit her family. Her Alpha father Sam, born to serve Satan, the Great Beast, to whom he would have fallen if Dean hadn't kept him human. Jo's forceful Alpha sister Charlie. Her gentle Omega brother Ben.

And Jo, a Dei. A demigod?

"Dei," Silvana chimed in with a knowing nod to Jo, "are very rare because we can only be born out of an exceptionally powerful bond between an Alpha and Omega, and even with that bond, Dei are rarely born."

"We are also designated by the manner of our conception," added Giò. "Alphas and Omegas mating as wolves tend to give birth to Alphas, or very rarely, Dei - and Alphas and Omegas mating as humans tend to give birth to Omegas. Again, you see how Alpha is animal and Omega is human."

"Why don't other werewolves have these designations?" asked Sam.

"Well, we're not werewolves, not as you know them," replied Giò. "That's a different sort of creature, although we have some things in common with them. And we weren't even aware that Children lived in America - not until very recently."

Charlie regarded him with deep suspicion. "You still haven't told us how you found us and what exactly you came here for. You said you came here to help us and protect my sister; why? Why did you follow us around and wait to show your faces until now?"

"And why didn't I pick up your scents at the school when I checked it out?" added Dean.

"Too many scents around and we were not there that day," Giò told Dean, "so you would not have picked up ours. And we had to wait to see how the moon would affect you. To make sure it would be safe to reveal ourselves to you."

"And... how you found us, _why_ you came here?" Jo watched the two strangers trade a meaningful glance.

"Your power," Silvana answered her. Without turning away or moving at all, Silvana lifted the blade Sam had held to Giò's throat earlier, made it swoop up off the floor and set itself back down on one of the library's display stands. "We Dei are connected to one another, and that connection is what brought Giò and I here. And we came here to protect you, because your life is in danger."


	14. Chapter 14

Sam slowly, menacingly, rose from his chair. He rolled Ben's chair behind him, and on the other side of the table, Dean also stood, shielding their daughters from the intruders.

"Are you threatening our children?" Sam's words were growled like an animal, his lips pulled away to show his fangs, his eyes a fiery red.

Silvana just rolled her eyes.

"Did you not hear me when I said we are here to _protect_ your children?"

"From _what_ , lady?" Dean demanded. "And why the hell should we trust you? Should we trust you because you're the same kind of monster as us? Because we've met others like us - the ones who turned us. And if you think they inspired trust, you are dead fucking wrong."

Giò started to speak but Sam silenced him with a louder growl - Giò winced and lowered his eyes, turning his head slightly to the side to show the older Alpha his neck, a gesture of submission.

"Dad," Ben pleaded from behind Sam. He glanced over at Dean. "Dads, please - just let them speak. Let them explain. We should at least hear them out."

Dean surveyed his son through narrowed eyes before turning back towards the two strangers.

"You heard the kid," Dean grunted at them, "get talking."

Silvana sighed before speaking.

"It... is not exactly safe to be Dei. Other Children have become hostile to us. They are killing us." Silvana looked sadly at Giò. "Giò is my cousin and he has protected me from them." The Alpha went to sit on the library steps beside her, curling an arm around her shoulders. "I have been trying to find other Dei, and I have been trying to save them, but-"

"There are other Dei out there?" asked Jo. Silvana gazed sadly at her now.

"Not anymore."

"So... you come here to protect our daughter," said Dean incredulously, "when you haven't succeeded in protecting anyone... and you expect us to entrust you with that?"

"We understand your suspicion of us," replied Giò with a sad smile. "We're not asking you not to be suspicious, we know what others of our kind can be like. It's good that you are cautious. All we want to do is help in any way you will allow us."

Sam looked at his and Dean's children and saw hope rising in their faces; this was something they had wanted all their lives, to find others like themselves, to feel less alone in this world. The hope was guarded, because these kids knew all about the monsters who had turned their parents, but it was hope nonetheless that Sam saw, and it was something neither he nor Dean wanted to take away from their children. Sam and Dean gazed contemplatively at each other, and Sam nodded in deference to Dean. It was Dean's call, as always.

"Alright," sighed Dean as he sat back down, Sam following suit. "So how exactly are you two going to help us?"

Giò cast his gaze around the bunker's central room. "This home of yours is already very well hidden... if it wasn't for Silvana sensing Jo's mind, we would not have found you, which is good. It means other Children are less likely to find you. But there are ways that we can protect this place even if other Children find it, ways that we can keep them out."

"Would've been nice to know _before_ the two of you broke in," muttered Charlie. Giò arched an eyebrow at her, she grinned, and he grinned back.

"You found us because of me... because you sensed me?" Jo asked Silvana. "How did you do that? Why couldn't I sense you too?" _And how do you know that other monsters won't find me like you did?_

A sour look crossed Silvana's face at the silently-spoken question Jo ended with. "You can't feel the connection to other Dei yet, because you have not been around other Dei, until now. You will learn. I will teach you."

_If you will accept the teachings of a monster_ , Silvana said silent and bitter. Jo gave her an apologetic smile and a nod.

"And I can teach all of you how to kill others like us," Giò offered. Sam and Dean scoffed.

"We know how to do that," said Sam with a dark and dangerous smile. "I killed the ones who turned me." Giò's face turned hard and his eyes locked with Sam's, and for a moment the air grew thick with tension, but Giò dropped his gaze and the tension dissipated.

"Of course you did." Silvana leaned forward with a humorless smile. "You are hunters. Killers... of monsters." She flashed that smile at Jo before turning back to Jo's parents. "Who were these Children who turned you, how did you find them? What happened to them?"

"They set a trap for us," Dean muttered. "Pretended to be hunters and told us about a pack of werewolves so we would come find them, and their plan was to capture us and use us to make more of them, but, well, Sammy took care of 'em." Dean flashed his brother a proud smile and Sam smiled back. "They were distant relatives. Long-lost Winchesters who tracked us down. They were... animals, barely human." Dean shuddered as he remembered the Alpha among them who tried to force himself on Dean. "They were sick and weak and dying."

"Animals... barely human," Giò repeated, understanding widening his eyes. "They lost their Omegas. They lost their humanity. That was why they wanted you."

"We didn't know of any Children in America before we found you," Silvana said, "but there were Children that lived in England long ago, and some of them disappeared - they must have come here to America."

"Werewolf Pilgrims," said Dean. "We... are descendents... of Werewolf Pilgrims. And I _wonder_ why our family is so screwed up." He shook his head.

Sam shook his head as well. "I don't get it though - why haven't we heard of any Children of Romulus before? Why does no one in America seem to know what we are? You seem to know about hunters, but hunters here don't seem to know about you."

"Hunters _here_ ," Silvana emphasized, "are not like hunters in Europe. Hunters in Europe do not share all of their knowledge with hunters elsewhere - especially not with Americans, who tend to come off a bit arrogant and invasive."

Dean lifted a sardonic eyebrow at her. "Stones from glass houses, lady." Silvana's expression soured again, while Giò grinned like a mischievous child.

"Well," he said as he smiled at the Winchesters, "I suppose you all know how to fight then. But if you'd like, I can watch over the school while you're there, and help if you need me to."

Ben beamed at this, looking hopefully up at Sam, wordlessly asking him to sign off on this Alpha's offer of help. Sam smiled at the hope on his son's face - then words ran themselves across his mind, words that the Dei woman had earlier spoken but had not elaborated on, words that chilled him.

_Dei are not safe. Children are killing us._

Sam studied Silvana. "You two are running," he murmured. "And you need our help. What are you running from? Why are other Children killing Dei?"

The looks on the strangers' faces confirmed Sam's claims, pain and panic clear in their expressions.

"The Dei that we tried to save... they were killed, and I was blamed for killing them," said Silvana, raising the Winchesters' collective hackles. Jo shrank further back from the strangers. Silvana watched her with regret. "I did not kill them. They were killed by - by other Children, who would also like to see _me_ dead. As I have said, Giò has protected me. Even from our own family, and because of this, our family has banished us."

Giò gripped Silvana's hand tightly and she gripped his, and their scents were drowned in sadness. The Winchesters felt that sadness keenly, but they also didn't fail to catch Silvana stuttering over who it was that killed the Dei, and their hackles remained raised.

Sam's and Dean's eyes met, the fathers silently debating which course of action they would take, how best to protect their children.

_Friends close, enemies closer_ , said Dean. _I say we keep 'em around and we watch 'em like hawks, and we don't leave our kids alone with them. Cas and Crowley could also keep an invisible eye out._ Dean watched Sam for his approval, which Sam gave with a nod.

"Okay," Sam announced sternly. "If the two of you want to help us, we won't turn it down. Not saying we completely trust you, but we'll trust you that much. And not saying we can help you two... but if we can, we will."

"See? Not all Americans are assholes." Dean winked at the strangers and they smiled with gratitude. "So, you were saying about warding this place against other Eurowolves - wanna show us how to do that?"

::

After the two strangers had shown the Winchesters how to ward the bunker against intruding Children of Romulus (including the strangers themselves), the strangers left. Giò offered to stand guard for the kids at school; the kids learned that he wasn't much older than them, only a year into his twenties, and Silvana was twenty-nine. Sam and Dean assented to Giò standing guard at the school, making sure to mention that their good friend, the King of Heaven, would also be watching over the kids. Not that they had asked Castiel yet but it was important for the strangers to know that fucking with the Winchesters would carry dire consequences.

With the strangers gone, and the kids holed up in their rooms, the elder Winchesters called Castiel down to the bunker's library, to tell him about the Children of Romulus and to ask for his watchful eye.

"I had never heard of the Children of Romulus," Castiel muttered with a shake of his head. "I suppose they keep themselves well under the radar."

"I'll do more digging, see if I can get answers out of any hunters across the pond," said Sam, already hauling out old Men of Letters files. "Without drawing them down on us. It's weird though, why wouldn't the Men of Letters know about the Children? I mean I guess the Men of Letters in Europe kinda ran their own show, but... there have been Children here in America too... our ancestors, apparently. And no mention of them that I've found so far in these archives."

"I remember the Werechesters talking about Henry, about our grandfather," Dean piped up. "They called him a traitor, said he had sent the Men of Letters after his own family." Dean squinted at Castiel. "Henry Winchester is in Heaven, right?"

"Yes, he is."

"Can you ask him about the Children of Romulus and why the Men of Letters don't have records of them?" The angel nodded in reply. "Men of Romulus, Children of Letters, these hoity-toity names... I mean, why not just call 'em what they are? Monsters and Nerds." Dean grinned wickedly. "In Sammy's case, Monster Nerd."

Sam tried to send Dean a bitchface but it was ruined by the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "So, Cas," said Sam, "can you watch over the kids at school, when you're able to?"

"Maybe we should just pull 'em out of school for now," suggested Dean. "That'd be safer."

"They've almost finished the school year," Sam countered, shaking his head. "I don't... I want them to be able to finish. And I can stay close to the school while the kids are there - I can't sit right outside it, but I can stay close, just in case something happens. So I wouldn't have to drive all the way out from home to get there."

"I'll keep my eye on the school when I can," Castiel agreed. "Especially on Jo, if they're saying she's the one in danger."

"Our little demigod," Dean murmured as he gazed toward the kids' bedrooms with concern.

::

Jo and Charlie, after a silent debate, made their way to Ben's room to check on him; he had been entirely too quiet in the presence of the strangers, and his sisters were worried.

They entered his room when he invited them in and they found him hunched over his homework, from which he didn't look up to greet them. He grunted in greeting, kept staring at his homework.

"Ben? You... are you okay?"

"Yeah. Got a paper due tomorrow so I gotta work on it."

Jo's brow wrinkled in concern. "Sure you don't wanna talk about anything? Meeting that Alpha?"

Ben sighed bitterly and shut his eyes.

"I just... wanna be normal," he whispered, voice slightly rough. He opened his eyes and looked sadly at the picture of him and Kat that adorned his desk, her beautiful smiling face. He looked down at the homework he was trying but failing to work on. Trying to put thoughts of the handsome Alpha stranger out of his head.

Charlie sat on the edge of his desk and scratched her fingers through his hair. "Right there with you, little bro," she murmured. "You're not alone in this." Jo leaned against the desk at Ben's other side, resting her hand on her brother's shoulder. Ben smiled sadly but gratefully up at his sisters.

They bid him goodnight, let him go back to his work, and before the sisters disappeared into their bedrooms, the younger stopped the elder with a hand on her shoulder.

"So," said Charlie, surveying her twin. "Dei. Aspect of a god. You gonna hurl lightning bolts down at us mortals if we piss you off?"

Jo laughed anxiously. "Don't be a dumbass."

"Tiger can't change its stripes." Charlie gave her sister a shit-eating grin before turning serious again. "Is there anything _you_ wanna talk about? I noticed some weird looks between you and that chick who looks like a constipated ghost."

Jo swallowed. "No, there's nothing... she's... she is pretty weird, huh?"

Charlie nodded. "Yeah. She's hiding something. She creeps me out."

Jo kept her eyes averted from her sister's and kept her emotions hidden. "Me too. Gonna try to get some sleep, didn't get much last night."

Charlie yawned. "No kidding. Sleep well, sis," said the Alpha as she patted Jo on the back and turned toward her room. Jo watched Charlie go, guilt and fear eating away at her inside.


	15. Chapter 15

The Winchester family greeted the new day with anxiety - anxiety over a multitude of things. Castiel, winging his way into the bunker while they ate breakfast, arrived with answers from Heaven - and the Winchesters didn't know whether to feel blessed or cursed.

"I spoke with Henry, your grandfather - and great-grandfather," Castiel informed them. "He does know about the Children of Romulus."

Sam and Dean frowned with indignation at the man in question.

"And why is it that he didn't tell _us_ about them?"

"He was extremely reluctant to talk about it with me." The angel sighed as he sat at the kitchen table. "I asked him to tell me what he knew and he insisted he didn't know anything, until I told him I would imprison him in Heaven's jail if he didn't cooperate."

Dean blinked disbelievingly at Castiel.

"You... you threatened to lock up our dead grandfather?"

"I didn't intend to lock him up." Castiel gazed thoughtfully at Dean. "Not forever."

Sam nervously cleared his throat. "Okay... so, he knew about the Children of Romulus... why was he trying to hide what he knew? Did the Men of Letters know about them?"

Castiel took Jo's cup of coffee to drink from it, and she scowled slightly.

"Not long after Henry had been initiated into the Men of Letters, he was told by a hunter about a werewolf in Pennsylvania, and when he accompanied the hunter to investigate, he learned it was a trap. The person pretending to be a hunter was one of the Children of Romulus, tasked with bringing Henry to them."

Dean growled softly. "They did the same thing to him that they did to us."

Castiel nodded. "And they told him that they shared a bloodline; Children of Romulus who had fled England for America and took the name Winchester. Many generations before Henry, there had been a divide in the family, between those who wanted to integrate with human society and those who wanted to stay outside of it. Henry's side of the family - your side - was the side that integrated with society, breeding with humans and eventually becoming completely human. The other side, who captured Henry, had been breeding only with each other-"

"Becoming animals," Dean finished with a shudder.

"Yes. Henry never knew about this other side of his family until they tracked him down, in an attempt to turn him into one of them and further their bloodline."

"How did he get away from them?"

"The Men of Letters followed Henry. They attacked his captors, killed some of them, but some got away. Afterward, Henry was given the task of recording the events, but he didn't. He was afraid of the Men of Letters learning that he was related to the creatures, afraid that they would kill him and his family as well."

"So no record was ever made," Sam murmured and Castiel confirmed this with a nod. "Did you tell Henry what happened to us?"

"No. It's not my place to tell him."

Sam and Dean smiled fondly at the angel. "Thanks for talking to him for us, Cas."

Castiel smiled in return and stood. "I should head back, but I'll check in on you all whenever I can." The family thanked him, he exchanged conspiratorial nods with Sam and Dean, and he left as quickly as he had arrived.

"So," said Charlie after she crammed a slice of bacon into her mouth, "King of Heaven's gonna be spying on us out there, huh? Kinda puts the pressure on, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, well, for me it's a relief," muttered Dean. "With those Eurowolves out there."

"You act like we're helpless babies," Charlie argued. "Like we can't defend ourselves. I mean, isn't that what you've taught us to do our entire lives?"

"I'm not saying you can't fight. But these things, we don't know a whole lot about fighting them-"

"We _are_ them! What do you mean we don't know about them?"

"We haven't had to fight things like us," said Sam. Charlie arched a brow at him.

" _You_ did."

Sam closed his eyes, trying to remember slaughtering the Werechesters, but all he could see in his mind was blood. It had been almost like he was shifted, his human brain gone, his body taken over with the animal instinct to hunt down and kill anyone who dared to come between him and his mate.

"I can't say I really knew what I was doing. If it was even _me_ doing it." Sam shook his head. "And your Uncle Crowley helped me. So that's why we asked your Uncle Cas for help."

"Because he's less of an asshole than Crowley," Dean elaborated and Sam huffed with laughter.

"I don't know about that," Jo groused as she got up and trudged over to the coffee pot to refill her mug. "Has Uncle Crowley ever come here in the morning and drank my coffee without asking?"

"I would not put that past him," said Dean. He got up to grab some more coffee too - Jo's upper lip curled and her fangs bared as she growled a quiet warning at him, staking her claim over the remainder of the coffee. Dean backed away with his hands raised.

"Whoa, easy there, Jodei." Jo just squinted at him. "Get it? Jo-Dei? Eeesh, tough crowd," said Dean with a resigned smile. "Coffee's all yours, honey, no need to smite me with your godly might or whatever."

"No need, huh? We'll see about that," Jo teased back, sipping her coffee.

"So," Dean sighed, "as if one wasn't enough, we got two 'Jo's now, you and Little Italy. And he's gonna be hanging around the school. Can't say I'm thrilled about that but I want the three of you to watch your backs and watch each other's backs, and you call me if there's trouble." Dean's gaze settled on his son, eyes narrowed. "Benny, you okay?"

Ben looked up in bewilderment. "I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"

"Uh, maybe because you've been disconcertingly quiet," said Charlie beside him.

"Look at you, using those ten-dollar words, who you tryna impress," Ben teased her. She shoved at the side of her little brother's head, grinning as she did so.

"Alright, eat your breakfast, get ready, we leave in twenty," said Sam with a glance at his watch, disposing of his dishes and leaving the kitchen while the rest of the family finished their breakfast.

Charlie passed Ben's room on the way to the garage, and glancing inside, she saw him slumped miserably at the edge of his bed.

"Ben?" she said, frowning as she approached him. She shut the door behind her before sitting beside him. He didn't look up at her.

"Hey, man, you can stay home if you need to," she said softly. "Dads will be okay with it. Hell, I'll stay too, not like I'm missing out on anything out there."

Ben sighed and shook his head.

"I _want_ to go," he whispered. He finally looked up at Charlie with beaten-down desperation in his eyes. "But it just feels like... like the only choices I have to make are _wrong_."

Charlie knew what he meant. She knew all too well. What choices lay before her in life? Which of them were actually _good_ choices?

Had there ever been any hope for her?

Charlie's eyes ran over the floor before returning to her Omega brother's. Same color as hers, same color as their Omega father's. She looked into those eyes a while before speaking.

"You heard what D said in the kitchen," she said. "Said to watch each other's backs. I know how you feel, like whatever we choose is going to be wrong, but you know what? Looking out for our family... that isn't wrong. So no matter what choices you make, no matter what this world throws at us... I got your back, baby brother." She patted his back and smiled. "Always."

The misery left Ben's features and slowly he returned Charlie's smile. Then he mouthed the word _gay_ at her, his smile turning wicked. She shoved him off the side of the bed, both of them laughing.

"Little shithead," she said with fondness in her voice. "Better get moving or we're gonna be late!"

The family all climbed into the Impala with Dean at the wheel, Sam beside him, the three teenagers in the back; when they arrived at the school, Dean and Sam exited the car with their children, and in front of the school they met Giò. He smiled broadly as they approached him.

"Good to see you all," he said with his dark eyes fixed on Ben's. Ben's heart fluttered in his chest.

Sam circled the young Alpha man, drawing Giò's eyes onto him instead. "Where's your cousin," Sam asked as he circled, scenting the air.

"Silvana is busy," replied Giò. "She is, ah... the brains of our operation, you might say. She is trying to find the other Children before they find us."

"And you're going to be here, watching our children," said Dean, eyes locked on the young man as Sam continued to circle. Giò nodded, worry beginning to show on his face as his eyes darted between the two older men.

Sam stopped and stood in front of Giò.

"And we'll be watching you," Sam murmured before turning away. He and Dean ushered their children into the school, and Sam's eyes returned to Giò as he and Dean returned to the Impala, watching the young man as they drove away in the direction of the garage Dean worked at.

Neither Sam nor Dean said anything between the school and the garage, both of them consumed by the anxiety of leaving their children with the threat of death looming. Dean picked up Sam's hand where it fidgeted on the bench seat between them, squeezing it tight as Sam squeezed his.

They got out of the car when they reached Dean's work, Sam walking over to the driver's side. Dean's coworkers greeted him warmly and they eyed Sam uncertainly - he'd never actually visited Dean's workplace before.

"This is my husband," said Dean as he gestured to Sam and Sam fought back a smile at the term. It wasn't often that they called each other by it - it was the front they presented to the outside world. Sam was unsure what these small-town Kansans would make of it, but they just smiled politely at him and he did the same.

"Husband, huh," Sam murmured as he leaned into his brother.

"Yep. My pretty little house-husband," said Dean with a grin, brushing Sam's hair away from his face. Sam smirked. "Alright, get on outta here, go look after our kids. Call me if anything goes down." Dean sank his fingers into Sam's hair and pulled him into a kiss, holding Sam there until someone coughed uncomfortably nearby and then letting Sam go.

Dean slapped Sam's ass as he turned to get into the Impala. "And be good to my Baby, bitch."

"I always am, jerk." Sam smiled before heading back toward the school.

::

Ben sat against the side of a building on the outskirts of the school and glumly ate his lunch as he listened to other kids laughing in the distance. Laughing and enjoying life. Kat was there somewhere... happier without him probably.

Ben's nose picked up the scent of an Alpha that wasn't his sister - he looked around him, craning his neck, then saw Giò approaching hesitantly.

"Hello," said the Alpha boy with a nervous smile. "I was wondering if I could sit with you?"

"Aren't you supposed to be watching Jo?"

"Silvana is doing that. In a manner of speaking." Giò laughed a little and tapped his temple. "She can watch your sister without using her eyes."

"Well," said Ben with an amused frown, "that's not creepy at all." Giò laughed a bit louder before sitting beside the younger boy. Ben eyed the Alpha, his eyes lingering on the shapes of Giò's muscles below his tight-fitting shirt. His eyes lifted to Giò's face, saw the smirk there, and Ben blushed before dropping his eyes.

"You, um," Ben stuttered out, trying to distract Giò. "You speak English really well."

"Thank you." Giò smiled. "Silvana taught me."

Ben nodded and an awkward silence descended.

"Um... are you and her..." Ben trailed off, unwilling to finish his question, blushing even harder. _What am I doing asking him if he's fucking his cousin, who the fuck asks shit like that, oh god..._

"Are you asking if Silvana and I are in a romantic relationship?"

Ben shut his eyes and shook his head with a sigh. "No, I mean..."

"We are not." Ben reluctantly looked up at the Alpha, who just smiled back at him like he'd asked a perfectly normal question. "Don't worry, you haven't offended me. Romantic relationships between family members is not such a strange thing to most of us Children. Your parents, they are brothers, yes?"

Ben nodded and tried like hell not to blush any more.

"My parents were also siblings." Giò turned his head toward the sounds of the other kids, listening to them before turning back to Ben. "I imagine you cannot tell these humans about that. Humans are different creatures from us - there are genetic problems they have that we don't. We are... designed to eliminate those problems."

Ben looked wonderingly at the older boy beside him. He had never had someone who wasn't family to talk about these things with... a friend to share with, a friend he didn't have to hide himself from. He looked into Giò's beautiful espresso-colored eyes and smiled, then gestured toward the kids' sounds.

"We tell them that our parents aren't related to each other. And... y'know... we leave out the part about us not being human. What's it like where you're from?"

Giò told Ben about his and Silvana's childhood on the outskirts of Milan; their family had mostly avoided humans, and children in their family were homeschooled in the same way Ben and his sisters had been, although they didn't also attend human schools like Ben and his sisters did. If Giò's family had needed to interact with humans, they too had taken on different names and stories to tell the humans.

Ben was as fascinated by Giò's story as he was by Giò's musical voice and his beautiful eyes. Ben jumped at the sudden clang of the school bell that signaled the end of lunch period, broken from his trance. He frowned down at his barely-eaten lunch and packed it up again.

"Does that mean you have to go back to your class?"

Ben nodded and sighed as he and Giò both stood. Giò seemed sad that Ben had to leave, and Ben realized he felt the same. He gave the Alpha a tiny smile.

"It was nice to talk to you."

"You too," said Giò as he returned the small smile. His eyes traveled curiously over Ben. "If it's okay for me to ask, why do you sit out here by yourself?"

Ben thought of Kat, felt his sadness grow, and he sighed again.

"Just don't wanna be around any humans."

"I don't either," said Giò with a grin. "I will see you tomorrow then?"

Ben beamed and nodded.

::

Someone deliberately knocked Charlie's headphones off her head and the tinny screams of Black Flag spilled into the air. She scowled at the headphones lying on the table in front of her. She didn't turn toward the person who'd knocked them off.

"Warning you right now," she said through gritted teeth, "this will not end well for you."

"Mm, real scary," said a familiar female voice, and Charlie turned to see Zora frowning down at her. "What's your deal, huh? What did I do to piss you off?"

Charlie scrunched up her face in confusion. "You didn't do anything."

"So why are you ignoring me and avoiding me?"

Charlie shut her eyes and sighed. She knew she was being an asshole to this girl - Zora kept trying to flag her down and talk to her but Charlie kept running away.

"You don't have to worry about that douchebag in PE," Zora promised, sitting beside Charlie at the table she had all to herself in the corner of the cafeteria. "Like I said, he's not my friend, nor will he ever be. If he keeps being a douche, I will kick that boy's ass, I give you my word."

Charlie surveyed the girl sitting beside her; ferocity in her gorgeous features serving to make her even more gorgeous. The side of Charlie's mouth lifted in a half-smile.

"You will, huh? Beat that guy up for me?"

Zora's elegant eyebrow lifted and she mirrored Charlie's half-smile. "You think I can't?"

Charlie grinned wide, shaking her head. But the grin fell quickly from her face, reality crashing down on her. This girl was human. This girl had no idea what Charlie was, and it would be dangerous, so dangerous in so many ways, for her to ever find out. Charlie had no shot with her, never would. No matter how badly she wanted that shot.

"Charlie," said Zora sternly and Charlie gazed uncertainly at her, something within her thrilled by her name on Zora's tongue. "Would you just _tell_ me why you're trying to brush me off?"

Charlie couldn't meet her eyes. Couldn't think of what to say.

Sadness and hurt filled the air, and Charlie looked up to see it in Zora's face before the girl got up and began to move away. Charlie couldn't stop her hand shooting out and grabbing Zora's wrist. She couldn't willingly hurt this girl.

Zora looked at Charlie's hand around her wrist, holding her in place, and she let Charlie pull her back down.

::

Jo watched her twin sister from across the cafeteria. Watched her grab a girl's wrist and pull her down to sit beside Charlie, watched the two girls smile and talk and laugh with each other. Jo smiled; Charlie liked this girl, and the girl liked Charlie.

Something dark and possessive twisted inside her at someone trying to stake their claim on her twin, but she forced that thing inside her deeper into the shadows. She stabbed some more of her salad with her fork.

_You don't have to be afraid of that_ , came a voice into her head, a voice that wasn't her own - a voice she recognized even though it didn't make a sound.

Silvana's voice.

Jo looked around her, figuring she wouldn't actually see the woman but going with the reflexive motion anyway. The woman was nowhere in sight.

_I don't have to be afraid of what exactly?_

_Afraid of what is inside you_ , replied the Dei woman. _Afraid of yourself._

Anger flared in Jo. _I don't appreciate you spying on my thoughts._

_You say that now. Perhaps you will appreciate it later._

The anger began to turn to fear. _What do you mean by that?_

_There is a reason that I am speaking to you now, like this. There are things I could not tell you in front of your family._

_What couldn't you tell me in front of my family?_

_Who killed the other Dei._

The fear in Jo amplified. She didn't like this - didn't like that she couldn't see the woman she was speaking to - didn't like that she couldn't get any sense of emotion from the woman's disembodied voice. She didn't like where this eerie conversation was going. But she couldn't help asking.

_Who killed the other Dei?_

_Omegas_ , Silvana answered. _Omegas are killing Dei._

Jo thought of her Omega father, her Omega brother. Gentle and loving. A little thorny at times but gentleness and love beneath. She couldn't see them being capable of what this woman claimed they were. She saw no reason to trust this stranger over them.

_You don't believe me_ , said Silvana. _I am used to no one believing me, no one but my cousin. You don't have to believe me if you do not wish to, but it would be wise for you to be cautious around Omegas. Obviously, I could not say this in front of them._

That made Jo think of other things Silvana hadn't given voice to in the War Room, when Jo had begged Silvana to keep secret the abilities Jo hadn't told her family about.

_Those abilities you're keeping secret, they are your secrets to divulge, not mine._

Right. Fellow mind-reader. Jo didn't even need to ask a question as long as she thought it. She wasn't used to being on this side of the mind-reading. _Why can't I hear **your** thoughts?_ she asked Silvana. _Or your cousin Giò's thoughts?_

_There is a way to block your mind from others. I taught Giò how to do it, and I can teach you as well, if you like. And you may want to continue to keep these abilities secret, the abilities your family does not know about. If they learn... it may be dangerous for you._

Jo narrowed her eyes, shook her head in irritation. Again this strange woman was asking Jo to trust her above Jo's own family. But something in Jo _did_ want to listen to Silvana, to keep these secrets.

_The abilities I have that you didn't mention yesterday - reading minds, changing my form whenever I want - are all Dei able to do these things? Are other Children capable of doing them? My fathers are able to talk to each other like you and I are talking to each other, but they're not Dei._

_Your fathers are soulmates_ , explained Silvana. _This is why they can speak in each other's minds. It is why you are Dei; their deep bond with each other created you. It is also why they have not felt such a strong desire to hunt after humans when the full moon rises. That bond with each other balances their human and animal instincts. Other Children are not so fortunate to have this. And no, Alphas and Omegas are not able to listen to the thoughts of others, nor are they able to change their form at will. These are solely Dei abilities - along with the ability to control weak-minded creatures._

Jo's eyes widened in alarm. She hadn't wanted Silvana to be privy to that. Hadn't even quite accepted that about herself, let alone offered it up for acceptance by others.

_That is how I found you_ , said Silvana. _Your overpowering of the snake in the forest, when the demon came to you. I had sensed your mind but had not seen where you were exactly, not until then. It takes a great amount of power to exert your will on another... and not all Dei can exert their will on humans, as you did with that boy who threatened your sister._

_Can **you** control someone's mind like that?_ Jo asked fearfully.

_Yes_ , said Silvana, and Jo shivered. Jo cursed herself for doing what she'd done to that boy, to Crowley's snake. She had unwittingly sent up a signal flare and who knows what chaos she might have brought down on her family by doing so.

_The demon who came to you in the forest_ , Silvana continued, _he is the one who created the bracelets that you and your family members wear?_

Jo glanced at the band on her wrist. _Yes. Why?_

Silvana hesitated. _And yet you and your family did not seem to be aware of what you are, that you are Children of Romulus... whoever created those bracelets, they must have knowledge of-_

Silvana's words cut off abruptly and then quickly she said, _We will talk more later._ Jo frowned down at her lunch, waiting for Silvana to say more.

Someone lightly smacked Jo in the back of the head and Jo looked up to see her sister grinning.

"Lunch is over," said Charlie. The girl that Charlie had been talking with was gone. "You can stop being pissed off at your salad now. Not that it doesn't deserve it."

Jo stared down at her salad a moment more before grabbing it and throwing it in the trash on the way to her class, hunger forgotten as new questions arose in her mind.

::

Dean and Sam retrieved their children from school in the afternoon. Giò waved them off, shooting Ben a furtive smile that Ben returned.

"I wonder where these Eurowolves are hunkering down," said Dean with a critical gaze aimed at the Alpha boy. "Are they squatting in some run-down building like the Werechesters were? Oh well. As long as they stay there and leave us alone."

"Um... I was thinking about something today." Jo wanted to be careful how she said this. She didn't want to say that she had talked to Silvana, or rather that Silvana had talked to her, because it would worry her parents. So, so many things she could say that would worry her parents. "Our, um, bracelets that Uncle Crowley made - has he ever explained _how_ he was able to make them, if he doesn't know what we are exactly?"

Dean frowned at her in the rearview mirror and Sam turned his head to frown as well. "No, he's never explained them," said Sam, eyes narrowing. "Why?"

"I think he might know something he's not telling us," said Jo, trying to tamp down anxiety and make her words sound thoughtful rather than afraid. "He... he showed up the other day when I was walking outside. Said something that implied he knew what I was."

Dean groaned in annoyance. "Now he's stalking our kids out in the woods like some fairy-tale monster? You'd think the ruler of Hell would have better things to do with his goddamn time."

"We'll ask him about it." Sam's scrutiny remained on Jo. Anxiety climbed with every moment his eyes stayed on her, until finally he faced forward again.

In the bunker's library, the family sat around one of the tables as Sam sliced his palm and summoned Crowley.

"Moose and family!" Crowley exclaimed, appearing in one of the chairs around the table. "And the little Squirrel, always such a delight."

"Creepy Uncle Crowley," muttered Dean, scooting his chair away from Crowley's.

"The creepiest," Crowley agreed with a wicked smile. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Do you know what we are?" Sam asked him.

Crowley's smile began to spread.

"There are oh so many answers I could give to that question."

"Crowley," Sam growled, walking forward until he was directly in front of the demon and glaring down at him. Sam held up the wrist he wore his bracelet on. "How did you make these? _Do you know what we are?"_

Crowley lofted an eyebrow at Sam. "You're asking me that now? After all this time?"

"Just answer the damn question."

"Of course I know what you are. I'm the King of Hell, Purgatory is next door to me and I've run into neighbors calling themselves the Children of Romulus - and I've met their father."

"You met _Romulus?"_

"Again. King of Hell. Yes, I've met Romulus. The writing on those lovely little accessories you all wear comes from the village where Romulus and Remus were raised - the shepherds who took on raising the boys after the wolf had nursed them. And that is why those bracelets give you control over your animal instincts. They contain that human influence."

Jo ran a finger over the glowing red glyphs on her bracelet. The glyphs that kept her human.

"Why the hell didn't you tell us all this before?" asked Dean angrily.

"You never asked," Crowley replied coolly. "I suppose because I'm not your beloved pet angel. And I assumed you'd figured it out for yourselves, you're the bloody Winchesters after all. But obviously we operate on a different level of respect; I respect your capability as hunters and Men of Letters, whereas you two have always underestimated and underappreciated me, even after I dragged myself out of the Empty with not a soul to help me."

Dean sighed. "Are you ever gonna stop whining about that?"

Sam held a pacifying hand up. "Alright, alright. Fair enough. We should have asked you," he muttered at Crowley. "Can you just... can you tell us everything you know about the Children of Romulus?"

"Hey, uh, why don't you kids go get started on homework," Dean suggested, "and we'll eat dinner in an hour or so. I know you're all concerned about this werewolf business but I don't want you guys to fall behind in school, so chop chop, get that homework done."

The teenagers gave him grumpy looks but they left the library, Crowley smiling at them as they went.

"My little devilchildren... insolent beasts just like their devilfather."

"You wanna tell us why you were stalking our daughter the other day?" demanded Dean. "You freaked her the hell out."

"Her sister was chained up in your dungeon. Without that bracelet of hers. I was concerned, so I asked Jo what was going on. What about you, would you like to tell me how it is you finally found out about the Children of Romulus? Since we're sharing."

Sam sat across the table from Dean and Crowley. "They came here," said Sam. "Two of them, from Italy. Said they tracked Jo down because she's a Dei, some kind of werewolf with mind powers... aspect of a god." Sam sighed. "They _claim_ they're here to help us, because they said that someone is killing Dei, killing people like Jo. We're not so sure they're telling the truth about wanting to help us."

Crowley nodded solemnly. "I wouldn't trust them either. Haven't met trustworthy Children of Romulus yet - well, aside from you."

"We figured we'd watch 'em as close as we can... Cas said he'd keep an eye out whenever possible, when the kids are outside the bunker, and we warded the bunker so no other Children of Romulus can come in."

"Can you also keep an eye on our kids out there?" Sam asked Crowley, softly pleading.

"Of course I will. No need for the puppy eyes... I'll always look after my devilchildren." Crowley smiled at Sam, then his eyes flicked down to Sam's bracelet. "And I suppose there's something else I should tell you about those," Crowley pointed to the bracelet, "since those devilchildren of mine are nearing adulthood - you should know that those bracelets will prevent them from having children of their own. They make you more human while wearing them, and thus you lose werewolf reproductive functions with them on. Sort of like a Werewolf NuvaRing you wear on your wrist."

Dean looked at his own bracelet in slight alarm. "Seriously?"

"Why do you think you stopped having kids after you put those things on? Wasn't for lack of trying." Crowley leered at the two of them. "Would be well over a dozen little Moose-squirrels running around if it wasn't for those bracelets."

Dean shuddered. "I really don't need or want to discuss that with you, Crowley."

"Neither do I," said Crowley with a sigh, standing up. "I have to get going. Do give Feathers a kiss from me."

"Crowley," said Dean, a note of hope faint in his voice. "Is there... a cure out there, for what we are?"

The demon king studied the eldest Winchester sadly before shaking his head. "I'm sorry."

He slipped from their sight without another word. Sam and Dean sat in the otherwise empty library, staring disconsolately at the spot Crowley had vanished from, and then they too left the library.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this chapter, I have now written 100,000 words in this fic series, and I am proud of this series so far! Prouder than I am of anything that I've written to date. My 100,000th word of Supernatural fanfiction was somewhere in Chapter 10 of this fic. Thank you to those of you following this story, especially to those of you kudosing and commenting, FEEDBACK IS LIFE <3


	16. Chapter 16

It was nearly a month after the last full moon; the next would rise in less than a week, and school would break for the summer soon afterward.

And Italian werewolves had invaded the Winchesters' home.

It was a balmy Sunday evening and Giò was making dinner in the bunker's kitchen, to celebrate the young Winchesters completing their year of school; he was showing Ben how to make meatballs and sauce to go with the spaghetti that waited to be cooked. The sauce was simmering, and Giò was helping Ben roll the meatballs.

Dean watched them a little grumpily. He wasn't exactly happy about the Italian invasion, but he couldn't be entirely upset about the tantalizing smell in the air.

"So you like cooking, huh," grunted Dean from the kitchen table, swigging his beer.

Giò turned to him with an incredulous look.

"I _am_ Italian."

Dean grunted again. He'd tried teaching Ben how to cook and the kid had never shown half the level of interest in it that he was showing now, and Dean couldn't help feeling bitter at the handsome young Alpha for that. Giò showed Ben how to shape the meatballs, his hands sliding over the young Omega's, their eyes catching and holding. Arousal flickering there.

The bitterness in Dean grew.

"So, Benny, you gonna cook for us now, make yourself useful?"

Ben stopped rolling meatballs and aimed a bitchface at his father before turning back to his task. Giò frowned at Dean.

"Ben is already useful."

"I didn't ask you, did I? I asked Benny." Dean drained the rest of his beer and walked over to the fridge to grab two more cans. "And I was just teasing him - what, do you guys not have a sense of humor back in the Old World?" Dean cracked one of the beers open, raised an unimpressed eyebrow at Giò, and left the kitchen.

Ben sighed. "Sorry," he muttered at the Alpha boy. "He, uh... doesn't like strangers. Don't take it personally."

Giò shook his head. "You don't need to apologize to me." He looked between Ben and the doorway Dean had gone through. "May I ask... why is he the only one who calls you 'Benny'?"

Ben wrinkled his nose. "I don't really like anyone calling me that. It's what my family all used to call me when I was little, and I dunno, it just makes me feel like a baby. My dad though - Dean - he won't call me 'Ben'." Ben focused on the meatballs he was making as he talked. "There was this kid... way before my dads had kids together, when they were still human. My father Dean lived with this woman and she had a son named Ben. He became kinda like a son to my dad too. So, saying that name reminds my dad of that kid and he doesn't like being reminded of that. And he had a friend named Benny, who he named me after, so that's why he calls me that instead."

Giò smiled as he watched Ben. "He is very protective of you. I suppose I make him nervous."

Ben glanced up. "Why?"

Giò's hand covered Ben's, the Alpha's eyes locked on the Omega's.

"Because of this," Giò murmured. Ben trembled as he looked up into Giò's heated dark eyes and breathed in the strong scent of Alpha desire. Then Ben remembered where he was, in his home with his family where any of them could walk in and see him... and he remembered who he was with. An Alpha. A potentially violent creature. Ben yanked his hand back and shook away the feeling of desire that had been rising within himself.

He laughed to break up the tension in the room. "I think this meatball's ready to go," he said, gesturing to the one he'd just rolled. The Alpha boy smiled with a hint of disappointment before nodding his approval and dropping the meatball into a pan to be cooked.

In the bunker's library, the Winchester girls sat with Silvana. Well, Jo sat with Silvana at one end of the room, and Charlie sat by herself at the other end. Jo and Silvana doing Dei things. Charlie doing Charlie things. Kind of reading her Physics textbook but mainly observing her sister with the Dei stranger.

Observing the stranger herself, long hair like white gold draped over alabaster shoulders, small body shrouded in a pale floral print dress. She had an alien prettiness. Charlie watched her and wondered... I mean, they were the same species. Maybe it could work. But, in her heart, Charlie didn't want this werewolf lady. Charlie's heart wanted someone else. Charlie sighed and went back to reading her textbook.

Jo was a stark contrast to Silvana, with her tall frame and dark hair, her black and gray baseball tee and her blue jeans torn at the knees. The two Dei sat in silence at the library's far table in front of the telescope.

_You're not focusing_ , Silvana chided Jo, who sighed and tried again to block her mind from the woman.

This was the only way Silvana could meet with Jo and no one was all that happy about it. None of the Winchesters trusted the woman, so the only way they'd allow her around Jo is if one of them was there too - Jo's twin had taken this task upon herself. Jo had tried to argue Charlie down but Charlie wouldn't hear it.

Silvana didn't bother to hide her dislike of Sam and Dean, so she was very unhappy to be in their bunker. Sam and Dean were too human for her liking.

Though Jo would rather not meet with the Dei woman at all, this was apparently the only way she could learn how to develop and control her power as a Dei. Jo's family still didn't know all of what that entailed; Jo had told them that Silvana was just teaching her how to sense other Dei, which wasn't a lie but it omitted a whole lot of truth and failed to make Jo feel like any less of a liar.

And it only made her feel more and more like she was playing with fire. She thought of her Alpha father. His addiction to demon blood, the powers he'd gained from giving in to it, and what he'd lost in the process. What might she lose by giving in to this?

"Still not focusing," said Silvana aloud. _Emotional self-flagellation will help no one_ , she added silently with a sneer on her face. Jo stood up with a growl.

"I can't do this," she said. "You should just go."

Silvana stood slowly and surveyed Jo with distaste. "Yes, I suppose I should." She smiled unpleasantly at both of the Winchester girls. "Good luck on your exams. I know how much the humans' acceptance means to you." Without another word, she left the bunker.

From the War Room's entrance, Dean watched Silvana slam the door behind her and he smiled, relieved to see her gone. He continued down the hall that led to the TV room, where he found his brother nursing a beer and watching Forensic Files. Dean dropped the unopened beer he'd been carrying into Sam's lap and leaned over the back of the couch to drop a kiss into Sam's gray-flecked hair.

"Watchin' your stories, old man?"

"You're gonna call _me_ old," said Sam as Dean rounded the couch. Sam put his beer on the table beside him. "You do _not_ wanna go there." Sam pulled Dean laughing into his lap to straddle him. Sam's hand drifted up under the back of Dean's shirt and pulled Dean closer to him, their mouths coming together to taste beer on each other.

Dean's beer landed on the table next to Sam's. "Bad Sammy," he whispered. "Shouldn't do this here." But he went on kissing Sam anyway - so hard to resist what was being offered to him. He made himself pull back, though, when his and Sam's erections began to press together.

He kicked off his shoes, pulled off his socks and laid on the couch with his bare feet in Sam's lap, sighing as he put his head down. "You think about what Crowley said?" He reached up to where Sam's hand lay along the back of the couch and hooked a finger under the bracelet Sam wore. "About these stopping us having more kids... think that's a good thing?"

Sam studied his brother's face as he laced their fingers together.

"Maybe," he replied, frowning slightly, uncertain. "I don't know. If you... I would have been okay having more. Would've been okay either way."

They'd had the option to be sterilized by Castiel, but neither of them had gone through with it. Neither of them had wanted the other to do it... nor were they sure they didn't want more children. Sam and Dean couldn't help feeling a little sad that Crowley had apparently taken that option away from them.

"It's just as well," said Dean gruffly. "Got plenty on our plate with these kids, I don't know if we could've handled any more." Sam murmured his agreement.

Dean turned his head towards the TV. "At least the Eurobitch left - that was the door slamming behind her just now - but Romeo's still here, in the kitchen, trying to seduce our son. Taking cues from this shit right here." Dean gestured unhappily at the TV as it told the story of some creepy dude stalking and murdering some innocent girl. Sam frowned.

"Has it occurred to you that maybe he and Ben just... like each other?"

Dean stared at Sam like he was insane.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah." Sam started massaging Dean's feet, taking some of the older man's tension away. "Ben seems to really like him."

"Benny has a girlfriend."

Sam shook his head. "Not for a while now."

"So, what, you _trust_ this guy?"

"I trust our son," Sam replied. "And if he trusts this guy, then yes, I trust him too." Sam studied Dean more closely. "You don't like the idea of our son being with a guy, do you?"

"Damn right I don't," grumbled Dean. "Girls are safer. It's not that I don't trust our son - I don't trust other guys. I definitely don't trust monster guys."

"Hate to say it, but that's what _we_ are," said Sam with a sardonic smile.

"That... is beside the point."

"Look," said Sam, "I get it, he's an outsider, it's hard for us to trust anyone outside this family. But I'm trying to, for our kids' sakes. They can't just be stuck with only us for the rest of their lives." Sam went on rubbing at Dean's feet, eliciting sighs of relief. "This guy has been hanging around us for almost a month now. He's become a friend to our son. He hasn't done anything to earn suspicion. And I want to trust in our kids, in their judgement - they deserve that. Like Charlie said, they're not babies anymore. Ben... he's his own person, you can't press him into a mold."

"Friggin' hippie," said Dean, trying to sound annoyed but not quite succeeding. "With your long hair and your beard. And your yoga."

Sam smiled and worked harder on Dean's feet. "It's okay to relax, Dean. We've had a hard enough life, but that's behind us now." He watched a tiny, reluctant smile appear on Dean's face. "We deserve happiness, and so do our kids."

::

The Winchester girls' sophomore year of high school, and Ben's freshman year, came blessedly to an end. Jo, as usual, had aced her classes; her twin sister, as usual, had barely passed. Their little brother had also struggled to earn passing grades. The kids and their parents were just happy to see the end of the school year.

Ben was also happy to have regained his ex-girlfriend's friendship; Kat had approached him before school had let out and had asked if they could stay friends, to which Ben had eagerly agreed. He felt blessed to have Kat back in his life, and to have his new friend Giò added to it... his new friend who was fast becoming more.

Jo was happy to have seemingly rid herself of Silvana. The Dei woman hadn't reached out to Jo since she'd stormed out of the bunker. Giò had apologized for his cousin's behavior, admitting that even he often found it difficult to be around Silvana. He had assured the Winchesters that, regardless of Silvana's behavior, he would continue to guard the school until the end of the semester. It was a relief for Jo to be able to focus on her schoolwork - easy problems to solve, unlike the rest of her life. For at least a little while, in her studies, she could just pretend those outside problems didn't exist, and afterward she could bask in her parents' pride as she graduated with honors.

Meanwhile, her twin very nearly flunked out. Charlie had never been interested in school, and the only reason she was still making any effort was so that she could stay close to her new friend Zora. Her new friend who wanted to hang out with Charlie after school ended. Who wanted to come over to Charlie's house.

"Does she know you don't live in a house?" asked Jo with a frown, sitting in the chair in her room while Charlie sat on Jo's bed.

"No, she doesn't know that I live in a secret underground bunker, with a family of werewolves, with two parents who are brothers. How well do you think she'd handle that information?" Charlie smiled mockingly. Jo shrugged.

"Can you go to her place instead?"

"She doesn't want me to." Charlie heaved a sigh.

"You guys could go out somewhere?"

"Neither of us have a car," Charlie grumbled. Gloom settled over the sisters.

Then the younger twin's face brightened as an idea came to her. She ran out of the room in search of her Omega father, and she found him in the bunker's garage, contentedly working on his Baby. Charlie grinned, running a hand along the car's gleaming black exterior as she walked up to her father.

"She's lookin' great," Charlie said to Dean, who beamed with pride. "Uh... you think maybe... I could borrow her this Saturday?"

The brilliant smile on Dean's face promptly disappeared.

"You wanna what?"

Charlie coughed anxiously. "Borrow? The car. This Saturday? I uh... I have this friend-"

"You have a _friend_ ," said Dean, dubious.

Charlie blushed a little. "She wants to hang out, so I was thinking... maybe I could take her to a movie at the drive-in? I'd only be out a few hours Saturday night, I wouldn't stay out too late. I got my license now... I promise I'll be super careful with the car, and you can ask Uncle Cas or Uncle Crowley to keep an eye on me if you're worried." Charlie gnawed on her lower lip in her anxiety, giving her dad the patented puppydog eyes that won him over every time. "Please?"

For a long while, Dean just gave her a calculating look. And then, yet again, he beamed at her.

"You have a _girlfriend_."

"I - she - she's not my girlfriend," Charlie stuttered, blushing harder. Dean's smile turned wicked.

"I see," he said, eyes glinting. "Just a girl. Who's a friend. Who you're trying to impress with this car, because otherwise you could've asked to borrow the truck."

"Forget it, just... I don't need to borrow anything." Charlie turned to leave the garage, embarrassed. Dean grabbed her arm.

"Hey," he said, "if you don't wanna talk about her, that's okay. I'm not gonna make you." Charlie relaxed slightly. "She goes to your school?" Charlie nodded. Dean cupped her face, looking into his daughter's eyes, and he gave her a warm smile.

"You can borrow Baby," he said, and this time it was Charlie who beamed. "As long as you're okay with Cas watching you, and as long as you treat both the car and the girl with the utmost respect."

Charlie huffed a laugh and blushed again. "I will, I swear." She gave Dean an earnest, dimpled smile that made her look even more like her Alpha father. "Thank you."

Dean patted her shoulder. "Something I wanna show you." He led her over to Baby's trunk and propped open the panel that revealed Baby's arsenal. He reached into a hidden compartment within the hidden arsenal, and he pulled out an antique black pistol with a cherry wood handle, blood red markings on its steel that flickered like fire. "You remember this?"

"That's the gun Dad gave you," said Charlie, smiling at it. "Our first Christmas."

"Mm-hm. This gun here will kill anything you shoot with it - your big brother took it with him on hunts and tested it to make sure. No magic bullets needed, just regular bullets. You aim for the heart." Dean loaded the gun's chamber and gazed steadily at Charlie. "I'm giving you this in case someone uninvited shows up when you're out with your friend. You keep both eyes open, you keep this within reach, and you be careful, hear me?"

Charlie gave him a firm nod, and he handed the gun to her.

"And there's a grenade launcher in here, that's Plan B if the gun doesn't work, but don't touch that unless you need to. Don't you go blowing up crap just for kicks. Because you will get arrested, and I will not post your bail."

Charlie considered this, cast the grenade launcher a wistful look, then gave Dean another nod. "Gotcha."

With Dean's support, Charlie earned Sam's as well. Charlie (along with her sister) had earned her driver's license months earlier and she'd been training for years as a hunter, and so she had earned the right to take the Impala out for a night.

Charlie gave her nails a fresh coat of black polish. She adorned the tops of her ears with rows of silver loops and her earlobes with black angel wing gauges, a silver ring through her septum. She meticulously painted her face, winged black eyeliner and metallic black lips. She dressed herself in a black Siouxsie and the Banshees shirt that hung off one shoulder, a black plaid skirt belted with a silver chain, her fishnet tights and her combat boots and an assortment of jewelry on her neck and wrists and fingers. She finished by carefully styling her mohawk.

She sat in front of her mirror, not looking into it, just staring unseeingly into the glass for a while. When getting dressed to go outside, she had never before cared about looking good for anyone. She had always just wanted everyone to stay the hell away from her, and dressing like she did usually accomplished that.

But here she was. Trying to look good. Trying to impress someone. Afraid of failing. Her heart was beating madly. She wanted to throw up. She wanted to stay home.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, grabbed her leather jacket and finally left her room.

"My little Charlie Bobby," said Dean when he saw her, his voice tight and eyes watery. "Going on a date."

"Don't - please don't make this awkward."

Dean cleared his throat and nodded. Sam smiled at Charlie, trying to conceal his worry with it. They gave her the car keys and some money for the movie, hugged her tightly, and then let her go.

She stopped at a convenience store, bought a small pile of candy and cans of soda, and she drove to where Zora lived and waited for her to come outside, heart somehow pounding even harder than before despite her thinking it wouldn't have been possible.

In the purple light of the setting sun, she saw the rainbow hues of Zora's hair, colorful cornrows swirling up into a braided bun. The lids of Zora's brown eyes were the colors of the sunset, her lips seashell pink, her nails the same shade of pink, and her voluptuous body was wrapped in a bright blue dress.

Charlie had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. Her heart stuck in her throat as she watched Zora approach and then slide into the Impala.

Zora gave her a dazzling smile. "Nice ride," she said, and her eyes traveled appreciatively over Charlie as well.

"Thanks, it's my dad's," replied Charlie when she'd regained the ability to speak. She smiled nervously. "So I was thinking we could go to the drive-in theater? They show some pretty cool old movies. Tonight they're showing The Wolf Man," Charlie cringed somewhat at the irony, "and then after that they're showing The Day of the Triffids."

"What the fuck is a triffid?"

Charlie shrugged. "Don't know, but we don't have to stay for that one." Charlie reached back into the back seat to haul out the bag of snacks she'd bought, offering it to her friend. "I got us some candy and some drinks."

"You could've taken me with you to get this, then I could've picked out something for myself."

"Pfft, that's too easy, no challenge." Charlie grinned. "I like trying to figure out what other people like. But, if I failed at snacks, we can go get more."

Zora eyed Charlie critically, dug through the bag, then raised her eyes to Charlie's again.

"You're lucky I like Junior Mints," said Zora, and they grinned at each other.

They talked about school as Charlie drove them to the theater and parked them in front of the screen as it showed old drive-in ads in advance of the movie. The two girls started attacking their hoard of sugary snacks and they laughed together at the strange old ads.

"So do you come here with your family?"

Charlie felt her good mood dampened a little by the question. "Um... yeah, sometimes."

Zora cast Charlie another critical gaze. "You don't talk about them much. At all, actually. Why is that?"

Charlie cleared her throat. Watched the screen and debated what she should answer with.

"My family," she started hesitantly. "They... they're kind of afraid of outsiders. That's, uh, that's why I couldn't invite you over."

"Is it just you and your parents or do you have brothers or sisters?"

"Me, my dads, two brothers and a twin sister. Older brother doesn't live at home, other one's a year younger than me."

Zora's eyes went wide.

"You have two dads? And a twin?"

"Yeah," said Charlie, becoming increasingly uncomfortable.

"Does your twin go to our school?" Charlie nodded. "I'm guessing she doesn't have a mohawk or I would've spotted her." Charlie smiled at this.

"Yeah. She's less noticeable than me."

Zora went on staring at Charlie, making Charlie fidget.

"Your dads... is that why they're afraid of outsiders, because they're a gay couple?"

Charlie let out a quiet nervous laugh. She nodded, because it was better than telling Zora the truth.

"Well, they don't have to be afraid of me," said Zora and Charlie looked at her longingly. Wishing she could just tell Zora the truth. She smiled sadly.

"It's just how they are. I can't change them."

Zora pouted slightly. "Alright. As long as we can still hang out like this."

"Yeah! Of course we can." Charlie beamed with relief. "I'm sorry about my family being weird though. I'm sorry if I've been weird too, I mean, I've never really - I've never had any friends." Charlie hoped that didn't sound too pathetic. It was the truth, and maybe Charlie should avoid that.

Zora smiled and shook her head. "Don't apologize. You know I like you a lot." The two of them looked down at Charlie's hand on the seat between them and watched as Zora took it in her own. Goosebumps erupted across Charlie's skin. "I like that you're different from everyone else." Zora's voice had gotten softer. Closer.

Charlie looked up to see Zora's face dangerously close to her own. Zora's eyes on Charlie's lips. Charlie was drowning in her scent, could hear her heart beating hypnotically, pulling Charlie in.

Suddenly their lips were pressed together.

Peppermint. Chocolate. And Charlie could taste Zora herself, sweeter than the candy, her mouth so soft. Zora moaned into Charlie's mouth. Charlie felt her cock growing in response - Charlie's eyes flew open and she ripped herself away from Zora.

Charlie turned away to hide what had happened, hiding her face in her hands as she turned deep red with shame. _What the fuck was I thinking. WHY DID I DO THAT._ Charlie pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face against them.

"I'm sorry," she choked out, muffled against her knees. "I can't... I..."

"Hey, it's okay. It's okay." Zora's hand rested soothingly on Charlie's shoulder. "I'm sorry too."

Charlie did her best to collect herself then turned back to Zora. "You don't have anything to be sorry for," she insisted. She glanced at Zora's mouth, her pink lips smudged black with Charlie's lipstick, met Zora's worried eyes again. "You know I like you a lot too, right?"

"I gathered as much from you spying on me in PE," said Zora with a sly smile.

"I want this," Charlie whispered. "I do. But..."

"I know," said Zora. "It's kinda fast. We can slow down. Don't worry."

Relief flooded through Charlie again and she smiled big and bright at the girl beside her. She gave a happy sigh, stretched her arm across the seatback behind Zora, and they turned to watch the movie begin.

::

Jo tried to conceal her bitterness at the happiness wafting off her two younger siblings. The two youngest Winchesters now had friends. No - not just friends. They had _significant others_.

And Jo had no one.

She'd even tried reaching out to Silvana but she couldn't connect to the Dei woman's mind. Giò had said that Silvana was busy tracking down the other Children of Romulus, from the old farmhouse that she and Giò were renting. Sam and Dean took Silvana's evasion to mean that the woman was now an even greater threat, and Jo was no longer allowed outside of the bunker. For the sake of her safety, they told her.

But Jo had lived in that bunker long enough to know how to get in and out without anyone noticing.

In the back of one of the Men of Letters' storerooms was a huge Aquarian Star, carved into the stone and spanning the entire wall. Decoration, presumably. The Men of Letters adorning their headquarters with their symbol.

But one day, a bored and curious thirteen-year-old Jo Winchester had drawn her finger along the larger diamond that the symbol formed before pressing her hand over the small diamond formed by the lines intersecting in the center - and when she pressed, the wall gave way. Didn't move or crumble away but lost its solidity and allowed her hand to pass through, allowed her entire body through the larger diamond shape. She'd found herself in a cave, and she'd followed its length to find herself in the woods outside of her home.

As her family slept, sixteen-year-old Jo snuck out of her room and into the storeroom. She began to trace the large diamond's shape, but a throat being cleared behind her stopped her. She turned to see her father Sam in the doorway, dressed in pajamas, watching her.

"Where ya goin'?" he asked, expression unreadable.

"Just bored, wandering around," Jo answered. She gestured at the symbol on the wall. "Wondering why the Men of Letters put this here."

"Maybe because of the secret passage that leads out of it?" Sam smiled wryly. Jo put on her best innocently-intrigued face.

"Secret passage? Really?"

Sam narrowed his eyes.

"You really think I wouldn't know about this by now?" He walked forward to stand beside his daughter and touched the wall's symbol. "This passage only works for Men of Letters and their Legacies - that's why it works for us. I've tried to keep it secret because I don't want your sister and brother to know about it - and we're gonna keep it that way, I don't wanna think of the trouble they'd get into otherwise - and I've let you use it because you've never been in the kind of danger that you are now in."

Jo huffed in frustration as she slumped down against the wall. "How do you know I'm in danger? You're just assuming the worst."

Sam sat on the floor beside her. "Jo... you're my child, and someone has threatened to kill you. Whether it's that woman, or whether it's the werewolves she's warning us about, it's a threat and your other dad and I are going to take it very seriously. We are _not_ going to risk losing you."

Jo glared at her father.

"So I'm just gonna be imprisoned in this bunker for the rest of my fucking life?"

Sam's eyes flashed an angry red. "Watch your language. And no. We're working on a solution."

Jo forced herself to calm down; she had never snapped at either of her fathers like that, never lost her temper with them. And she had never kept secrets from her family before. She closed her eyes and hung her head.

"I'm sorry," she said, soft self-loathing. She felt Sam's arm wrap around her.

"It's okay," he whispered. "You won't be stuck in here much longer, I promise. I know it sucks. Just bear with us."

But that wasn't what Jo was apologizing for. She bid her father a sullen goodnight and returned to her room, where she tried and mostly failed to sleep.

The next morning saw the return of Jo's older brother, after over a month of him being away. Jack had waited to visit so that his siblings could focus on school as it ended and after that he had waited for the full moon to pass; Jo welcomed him home heartily and he congratulated her just as heartily on how well she'd done in her classes. Jo threw together breakfast for her reunited family: Charlie and Ben at home, no strange werewolves hanging around, and Jack was back. Like old times. Jo felt happy again.

It didn't last long.

That afternoon, as Jack and Jo sat in the War Room catching up on each other's lives, there was a knock at the bunker's door, and Jo opened it to allow Giò inside.

"Who is this?" asked Giò when he descended the stairs and saw Jack.

"This is our brother Jack," said Jo, smiling at her big brother.

Giò sniffed the air and frowned. "A human."

"Yep, he's our human brother. Jack, this is Giò, one of the Children of Romulus that came here from Italy."

The expression on Jack's face was cold. "What is he doing here," Jack asked his sister without removing his eyes from the Alpha boy.

"He's Ben's friend. He comes over here a lot," Jo explained, anxious as tension filled the air. The family had told Jack about the Children of Romulus, about Giò and Silvana coming to them, but they hadn't mentioned Giò's frequent visits of late.

"I see." Jack's expression hadn't changed. "I should go. There's a case I have to look into."

He reached down to grab the duffel he'd brought in with him and started toward the stairs. Jo grabbed his arm.

"Jack! You just got here - what the hell?"

Jack still wouldn't take his eyes off Giò. "I have to go," he said quietly, and Jo could smell fear and grief on him. Jack met her eyes. "I'm sorry." And with that he left.

Jo stared up at the door and sighed despondently. _Bobby._ She hadn't considered what it would be like for Jack to be around werewolves after what had happened to Bobby - the Winchesters were one thing, they were Jack's family, but this stranger was not.

Giò went off to hang out with Ben. Charlie took off to hang out with her friend. Jo's fathers took pity on her and invited her to watch a movie with them in the TV room and Jo declined the invitation. She tuned the radio in her room to a classical music station and laid on her bed to continue the fantasy novel she'd been reading, trying to let the book and the music pull her away from her troubles.

After a while, Dean stuck his head into the room. Dvořák's New World Symphony was playing and Dean squinted at the radio.

"What kinda Clockwork Orange nonsense is this, where are the droogs?"

"Don't have any," Jo muttered at her book.

"Welly welly well then," said Dean with a smirk. "You will be happy to hear that Garth just called and invited us all along on a family camping trip, so your days of sitting inside and sulking are over."

At the news, Jo dropped her book and beamed at her father, thrilled by the mere thought of being somewhere other than the bunker and thrilled even further by the prospect of seeing friends - Garth's children were good friends of hers. She thanked Dean for telling her and immediately leapt off her bed to start packing for the trip, forgetting to ask when they were leaving in her excitement.


	17. Chapter 17

The Winchesters rushed around the bunker in their preparation for the week-long trip, packing food and clothes and camping gear, loading up the bed of Sam's truck and the trunk of the Impala. Giò watched them rush around him, a little bewildered and a little sad.

"So... you're going to Missouri?" He struggled somewhat with the pronunciation.

"Yeah," said Ben with a smile. "It's one of the states next to this one, next to Kansas. Our Uncle Garth and his family go camping in the forest there, for one week every summer."

"And they are werewolves?"

"Lycanthropes is what they like to be called."

Giò nodded thoughtfully and watched Ben continue to pack his belongings, the scent of his sadness getting stronger. "I will miss you while you're gone."

"I'll miss you too," said Ben softly as he gazed at the Alpha. But as he continued to study Giò, an idea came to him and he smiled broadly. "Actually... maybe we don't have to miss each other!"

Ben ran off to find his fathers and asked if Giò could join them on the trip. Dean immediately and angrily said no, but Ben pleaded with him. He wanted his friend to come, and it was an opportunity for his friend to see more of America and to meet more of America's non-human population. Sam gave his approval but Dean refused.

"You're not sleeping in our son's tent," Dean grunted at the Alpha boy. "And we don't have a tent for you."

"I don't need a tent," said Giò with an easygoing shrug and a smile. "I am used to sleeping outside without one."

Dean only glared harder at Giò. Sam elbowed Dean.

_Let him come. We'll all be there to watch him, it'll be safe. Ben wants this._

Dean glanced at his Omega son, the desperate hope in his eyes, and he let out a resigned sigh.

"Alright. He's allowed."

Ben and Giò cheered and Giò helped the Winchesters finish loading up the cars. They agreed that Dean and Charlie and Ben and Giò would go in the Impala, while Sam and Jo would take the truck. Dean gave Ben the Impala's driver's seat; Ben didn't yet have his license but he would get it soon and Dean wanted him to practice driving. Dean himself sat shotgun and the other two sat in the back.

Ben put a Hendrix tape on as he drove and he and his Omega father argued good-naturedly over the lyrics of Purple Haze. The family stopped in Kansas City to eat, Dean took the driver's seat back and then the family continued to the Fitzgerald family campsite, hidden in the Missourian wilderness, discoverable only by the GPS coordinates Garth gave them.

The coordinates led them down a tiny hidden road to a clearing in the forest, where a gray-haired Garth and his wife Bess greeted them with warm hugs. The Fitzgeralds eyed Giò warily as he introduced himself and they asked the Winchesters where Jack was. Jo told them Jack was out on a hunt, wincing as she lied to them.

The rest of the Fitzgerald clan emerged from the trees with arms full of firewood they'd collected. Kate, who had adopted the family name when the family had adopted her fifteen years earlier; she had become like a sister to Garth, an aunt to his children and to the young Winchesters. Gertie, who was the same age as Giò and a college student, studying mythology and folklore. Seventeen-year-old Sam Fitzgerald, the older Fitzgerald twin, who greeted Jo and Charlie with a jubilant cry of "TWINCHESTERS!!"; and his twin Castiel, who greeted the Winchesters more quietly than his brother.

"Good to see ya, Cas-two," Jo greeted him, making him smile at the nickname the Winchesters had given him. He hugged her in reply. Of Garth's kids, he was the one Jo was closest to, both of them being equally reserved and roughly the same age.

The two of them chatted contentedly as they gathered wood for the campfire, along with the rest of the teenagers, and the adults put up tents. There was a small lake near the campsite, but night was falling so there would be no swimming in it yet. The two families joined together around the campfire for a dinner of hot dogs and s'mores, laughing at their European guest's bemusement at their strange American ways.

He slept outside on the forest floor, claiming it was more comfortable for him than sleeping in one of their tents, and the next morning, Dean gave the Alpha boy a begrudging smile when Giò handed him a cup of the coffee he had brewed for everyone.

After breakfast, Sam Winchester chopped wood for that night's fire, wearing jeans and a white shirt that stuck with sweat to the straining muscles of the Alpha's upper body. Dean watched with hunger in his eyes despite the meal he'd just eaten.

Charlie left the campsite to find her sister sitting tranquilly by the lake, watching ducks swimming in the water.

"D is watching Dad chop wood and he's pitching a tent," grumbled Charlie as she sat beside Jo. "And I don't mean in the ground."

Jo recoiled in disgust. "Oh god. Why are you telling me that?"

"I'm ridding myself of unwanted information. It's yours now." Charlie smirked at her twin before studying her more seriously.

"Hey... um... I'm sorry for how I've been lately."

Jo gave her a deeply confused look. "What do you mean?"

"That I haven't really been around much. It's weird, you know." Charlie sighed as she looked out at the lake. "I've never had a friend like this, and I don't really know what to do so I just hope I'm doing it right, and I haven't really stopped to think how it affects you."

Jo let out a half-cry, half-laugh, gazing sadly at her sister.

"There's nothing to apologize for. I love you, idiot, I'm _happy_ for you."

Charlie grinned and pulled Jo into a bonecrushing hug, refusing to let go until Jo cried out in pain, both girls laughing afterward.

Deeper in the forest, their brother was hunting a wild hog for dinner.

Giò had caught the hog's scent and Ben had joined him in tracking it; Giò gave Ben instructions to circle around to the other side of the animal and drive it closer to where Giò was so that they could take it down together. Ben did as Giò said, but he underestimated the hog's intelligence and speed, and it tore past Ben and disappeared into the trees.

"Sorry," Ben muttered when he met back up with Giò. "I lost it."

"No worries," Giò replied with a smile, holding up rabbits that he'd found. "You did well! And we have food."

Ben shook his head as he smiled back. "You're amazing, you know that? You even got _Dean Winchester_ to smile at you."

"Does he not smile?"

Ben laughed. "He does, just not at many people. Definitely not at Children of Romulus, at least ones he isn't related to."

"Does that mean he does not hate me?"

"I think he's starting to warm up to you." Ben smiled and moved closer to Giò as they walked back to the campsite.

That afternoon, everyone went swimming in the lake, let the summer sun dry them off before it set behind the trees, and then after dinner they all gathered around the fire at night for Gertie to tell them a scary story.

In a hushed voice, she told the story of a family that went camping in a forest near a lake. _Just like us_ , she whispered. But the father disappeared one night... and the next night, the mother disappeared. Not a trace of them left behind. The children, two boys, were left alone in the deep dark forest. There was a sound like the trees whispering around them... one of the boys turned to look into the trees toward the sound, and when he turned back, his brother was gone, just like their parents.

The boy then heard his brother call out to him softly, and he followed the voice, hoping to get his brother back, but the voice only grew fainter as he followed it. Then, the trees began to make the same noise they had earlier, whispering around the boy. The air grew suddenly still, the woods around him completely silent.

The Winchesters and Fitzgeralds and Giò all fell silent as well, holding their breath, waiting for Gertie to continue.

"And out of the trees... came a human with a silver net who GRABBED THE BOY!"

Sam Fitzgerald screamed as his brother Castiel, lurking behind him, grabbed the back of his neck, making him jump and run away in fear as everyone else fell over laughing.

"So," said Giò with a grin, "you are what is known as werewolves, but you do not call yourselves this?"

"Lycanthropes," Bess replied. "Lykes for short. I was born one. Garth became one and our children were born lykes like me. Kate," she gestured at the younger woman, "was like Garth, she became one and then she found her way to us."

"If you call being locked in cages together 'finding my way to you', then sure," said Kate with a somewhat dark smile. Garth slung an arm around Kate's shoulder.

"Hey, it sucked, but it made us a family and I'm grateful," he said with a warm smile that Kate returned. Garth turned to Giò.

"And... what you are, what Sam and Dean turned into, are Romulans?"

"This ain't Star Trek, Garth," said Dean with an amused snort. " _Children of Romulus_ is what these fancy Eurowolves like to call themselves."

"You can just say Children," offered Giò.

Another amused snort. "Yeah, like that's not a weird thing to call myself at all."

"So there's a bunch of these Children over in Europe," said Garth thoughtfully. "And that means you're _not_ the Alpha of your kind, huh, Sam?"

"Nope," answered Sam, "that'd be Romulus, founder of Rome."

"Speaking of Alphas," said Dean, looking over at Charlie with a wicked gleam in his eyes, "our little Alpha girl here has found herself a girlfriend at her school."

"Way to go, kiddo!" exclaimed Garth as he and Bess beamed.

Charlie sighed with great exasperation, frowning at Dean. "I _told_ you, she's _not my girlfriend."_

"Denial ain't just a river in Egypt." Dean smirked. "The original Charlie would be so proud of you, honey."

Charlie flushed with embarrassment and picked up her guitar where it had been sitting beside her, turning her attention to it instead and picking out notes of a song.

"Hey, play us something romantic!"

Charlie glowered at her Omega father for a moment before leveling a wicked grin at him - she began to strum at her guitar and she sang: " _Why can't I get, just one kiss, why can't I get, just one kiss, believe me some things I wouldn't miss but I look at your pants and I need a kiss - why can't I get, just one screw_ -"

"Okay, alright, enough," Dean stopped her, shaking his head in parental exasperation.

"Oh wait I know one!" Charlie threw her head back and sang out: " _I WANNA KNOW WHAT LOVE IIIIIS_..."

Jo threw her head back too. " _I WANT YOU TO SHOW MEEEEE,"_ she sang with her sister. The rest of the group joined in singing as Dean smiled and shook his head again. He tipped his head back, looking at Sam who he had been leaning back against; the fathers shared a warm smile as they listened to their children singing.

Late that night, after the fire had died and everyone had lumbered off to sleep, Sam magically soundproofed his and Dean's tent and Dean dragged him into a hungry kiss, Sam drowning in the scent of his Omega's desire.

Sam tore at Dean's clothes and Dean helped take them off. Sam took off his flannel and started to pull up his shirt but Dean stopped him.

"Mmm, you looked so good today," Dean murmured, kissing Sam's neck, nosing at the collar of Sam's shirt. He kissed across Sam's clothed shoulder before shoving his nose under Sam's arm and inhaling him. "Smell so fucking amazing."

Dean ripped Sam's shirt to pieces to continue kissing Sam's body while Sam tipped his head back and moaned. Dean licked and sucked and bit at his brother's skin like a man starved. Made his way down Sam's belly as he opened Sam's jeans and pushed them down with Sam's underwear, baring Sam completely to him.

His nose followed the trail of hair down Sam's lower stomach to where it grew thick around Sam's cock, moaning as Sam's scent filled his lungs completely, so strong and so sexy. Dean mouthed lightly at Sam's shaft before licking at it, feeling it throb on his tongue, savoring a drop of precome that slid down from the head to dance over Dean's tastebuds.

Dean sucked Sam down, deep into his throat to get more of that taste. Sam groaned and pushed Dean away, and Dean had barely any time to be disappointed before Sam shoved him face down on the ground and shoved his tongue into Dean's ass.

"Taste so good, Dean," Sam rumbled, leaving a wet kiss on each of Dean's asscheeks and then beginning to fuck Dean with his tongue. Dean thanked all the gods he knew of that Sam had soundproofed the tent as he couldn't hold in his wails. Precome dripped steadily from his cock, spit and slick dripped from his ass, and he raised his ass up in offer.

"Fuck me, Sammy," he pleaded, "fuck me hard, baby, I wanna feel you tomorrow."

Sam planted one hand beside Dean's body on the ground and slid an arm under Dean to pull him up off the ground. Sam knelt between the spread of Dean's legs and draped himself over the older man, breathing Dean in just as desperately as Dean had breathed him in, kissing Dean's shoulderblade and scraping teeth over it.

"So fuckin' hungry for it," panted Sam and he could've been talking about either of them. He gripped Dean's waist, held him in position, shifted his hips until his cockhead slipped between Dean's cheeks and then he thrust forward and into his brother's body. Two more thrusts brought him all the way home. Sam shuddered at how perfect he fit inside Dean, and he could feel Dean shudder beneath him, Dean shifting and whimpering for more.

Sam kissed the years-old bitemark on Dean's neck as he started to fuck him. He slid his hand down to palm at Dean's wet cock and his heavy balls, loving that he was able to do that to Dean, to make him so hard and so hungry. He kissed and bit across the span of Dean's shoulders as he started thrusting harder.

Dean groaned at the burn of Sam's big dick inside him, knocking against Dean's womb, rubbing Dean's prostate just right each time it pushed into him. Sam's muscles flexed against Dean's body, driving them together. Sammy, perfect Sammy, fucking Dean perfectly and Dean wanted all that Sam was capable of giving him.

"Harder, baby boy, fuck me hard like I know you can."

An animal grunt came out of Sam's throat at those words and the feel of Dean's inner muscles clutching at him, asking for his knot. Sam was reminded of the times when Dean had gone into heat - Dean was gasping and lifting his ass into each rough thrust and he was wet, sopping fucking wet like he used to get when he was a bitch in heat. It called to the Alpha inside of Sam, and his thrusts became harder, rougher, faster, their skin clapping together like thunder in the night.

Sam's teeth dragged over Dean's neck as he panted and fucked Dean with all he had, Dean sobbing his pleasure beneath Sam. Dean's body squeezed around him and Sam's knot began to grow, began to lock them together.

Sam gave one last deep and powerful thrust to seal himself inside Dean's body, growling like a beast as he sank his teeth into the skin of Dean's throat. Dean cried out as Sam's knot filled him and Sam's come shot deep inside of him to fill him up all the way. Dean came hard over Sam's hand and the ground and his body wrapped tight around Sam's knot, milking him as Dean collapsed weakly to the filthy ground, panting and sighing and sated.

Outside, their teenage son quietly left his tent.

Ben looked around for Giò but didn't see him anywhere. He followed Giò's scent into the darkness of the woods, and he found Giò deep in those woods, sitting on a tree that had fallen. Dark eyes turned up and reflecting the stars above. Giò turned to look at Ben.

"What are you doing out here?"

"What are _you_ doing out here?" Giò threw the question back at Ben and smiled.

"Just wanted to check on you," answered Ben.

Giò's eyes swept over Ben. "Is that all you wanted?" Ben swallowed hard and sat beside the Alpha.

"No," he whispered. "It isn't."

Ben's eyes swept over Giò as well, hungrily. Giò leaned toward him, brushing his nose against Ben's throat.

"Do you want me?" the Alpha rumbled into the Omega's skin.

"Yes." Ben's head fell back and the word came out as barely more than a breath.

He watched the stars as Giò kissed his neck, whispered words in heated Italian as his lips moved across Ben's skin, made Ben feel things he had never felt before. Pulled Ben down to the forest floor, the world spinning around the two of them.

Ben was naked and Giò was naked on top of him and then they were joined together, and Ben cried up at the stars as Giò's fangs sank into his throat and sealed them together for eternity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song lyrics in this chapter are from Violent Femmes and from Foreigner and holy shit why have they not toured together yet


	18. Chapter 18

Ben thought it would be different.

He thought he would feel different, feel _good_ when he finally had sex, but what he felt was unease and pain and fear.

"My Omega," the Alpha lying on top of him whispered, licking blood from the claiming bite he'd given Ben's neck. "You taste so good."

They were still tied, so Ben couldn't move away. Giò leaned up to frown down at him.

"What's wrong?"

Ben shut his eyes. "I shouldn't have done this."

"Why not?"

Ben shook his head, overwhelmed with reasons why not.

Giò pressed his lips to Ben's ear. "I thought you wanted me."

"I did. I do." But something felt wrong to Ben. It felt like a mistake.

Giò sighed softly. "The first time is difficult, but it will get better. Everything will be better." Giò moved back up and held Ben's face in his hands, locking their eyes. "You are my Omega now. I am your Alpha, and I will protect you. That is my duty."

Ben still felt afraid.

"There is something I must tell you," said Giò. "For your protection. And for your family's protection, because they are my family now as well."

Ben gave him an uncertain nod.

"You and your family... you see what Silvana is like, that she is not to be trusted. But there is much more that you do not know. There are more reasons not to trust her."

"What do you mean? She's your cousin, you came here with her - what do you mean she can't be trusted?"

"There are secrets I have kept for her. To protect myself and others, I have kept these secrets and I have stayed close to her, to watch her." The expression on Giò's face was fearful. "I watched her kill her own kind. _She_ is the one who has killed the Dei."

"What!? She... you watched her kill them??" Ben stared up in horror. "Why would you-"

"She is very powerful. More powerful than you understand, and more dangerous than you understand. She is the reason my father is dead." A tear rolled down Giò's cheek. "When we were small, Silvana attacked a human girl. The humans came after us; our family fled into the mountains, but my father was killed."

"Giò," Ben whispered, reaching up to brush away his tears. The Alpha covered Ben's hand with his, closed his eyes and was silent a moment.

"Silvana... she wants power," Giò whispered. "She has always wanted more power. This is why she has killed other Dei. She does not want anyone else to have this power. And... I am afraid that she is not the only one you must worry about."

Fear crept through Ben. "Who else?"

Giò's expression was hard and determined.

"Your sister Jo."

Ben's hand fell from Giò's face. He stared at the Alpha in disbelief.

"I know you care for her - she is your sister." Giò sighed. "Silvana is as close as a sister to me. I know how difficult this is to accept. But your sister... she will hurt others. If you let her."

Ben wished yet again that he could move away. Giò gripped Ben's wrist.

"There are things you do not know about your sister. Secrets she is keeping from you; secrets she has shared with my cousin but not with her own family. Your sister is able to read minds. In your heart, you already know this, don't you? But you have not accepted it."

Ben wanted to tell Giò this was untrue. He couldn't.

"And she can control minds," said Giò darkly. "She is becoming more powerful and more dangerous with each day. She is becoming a greater and greater danger to your family."

"She _is_ my family."

"She is going to get your family killed. Unless... you kill her first."

Fury climbed inside Ben like lava in a volcano. He wrenched his wrist out of the Alpha's hand.

"Get off me."

"Ben - my Omega - please listen-"

"I said GET THE FUCK OFF ME!!" Ben shoved at Giò, tried to push them apart and cried out in pain as their bodies refused to part.

"Stop."

Something in Giò's voice took control of Ben, made him still his movements.

"I need you to listen," said Giò quietly. "You must do this for me. I cannot do it, because your sister would not allow me to get close enough. It must be you. Do this for me. Do this to protect your family. I will protect you after."

Furious, horrified tears ran down Ben's face. "I can't..."

" _Kill your sister_."

Ben needed to kill his sister. He nodded in compliance. It was horrible, but he had to do it. He had to obey his Alpha.

When he and Giò untied and dressed, they returned to the campsite and Ben picked up the axe his father had used to chop firewood. He swallowed hard and he shook as he walked up to the tent his sisters were sleeping in.

He was quiet as the grave as he stepped inside. Charlie was facing away from him and Jo was on her stomach, both sound asleep.

He watched Jo for several minutes, his blood cold in his veins.

_KILL YOUR SISTER._

Ben sobbed and kept his eyes on Jo's neck as he raised the axe above his head.

But a flash of white from below Ben's face caught his eye. He looked down at the Celtic knot pendant that his big brother had given him for his birthday.

_It's a symbol of strength_ , Jack had told him.

Ben stared at that symbol of strength, and slowly he forced himself to let go of the axe, grasping for that strength inside him. The axe thumped onto the ground. Ben panted as he fought the urge to pick it back up.

"What... Ben? What are you doing?"

Ben turned to see Charlie squinting tiredly at him. He gathered what strength he could and he forced himself to run.

He fled into the dark forest and Charlie's voice followed him, crying out for him to stop but he couldn't, he couldn't stop, he couldn't go back.

He ran into something warm and solid and strong arms wrapped tight around him. Alpha scent filled his nostrils. _His_ Alpha. He looked fearfully up at Giò's face.

"It's okay," Giò murmured, smoothing Ben's hair, petting him gently. "Did you do as I said?"

"What the hell is going on??"

The two boys looked up to see Charlie staring at them in confusion. Then her eyes fell to the bite on Ben's neck, and the confusion on her face turned to fury as her eyes met Giò's.

" _You_." Her voice was a low growl. " _You're_ the one going after Dei. Using Omegas... using my _brother_."

Her eyes went red, her fangs and claws sliding out as she growled a challenge at the other Alpha. Giò pushed Ben behind him.

"It is Silvana who is killing Dei, not me."

"Get the fuck away from my brother."

Giò glared at her, red-eyed.

"This boy is _mine_."

Charlie roared and launched herself at Giò. He dodged her and she ended up pinning her brother to the ground.

"How dare you attack my Omega!?"

Giò grabbed Charlie and sent her flying into a nearby tree, where she collided with a painful crunch. She fell unconscious to the ground and Giò flashed a deadly grin.

"Sick little girl," he hissed. "Wants her little brother all to herself, won't allow him to be with another Alpha. I will be doing the world a favor by ridding it of you."

With fangs and claws extended, Giò started toward Charlie, but Ben grabbed him.

" _No_ ," Ben pleaded, "don't hurt her, you don't have to hurt her... let's go, let's leave, I'll go with you!"

Giò gazed consideringly at Ben.

"Please, Alpha," Ben whispered.

The sound of someone running toward them reached their ears, and with a growl, Giò grabbed Ben and ran.

Half a minute later, Jo cried in alarm when she saw her sister crumpled on the ground.

"CHARLIE!!" She fell to her sister's side, grabbed her and shook her. "Please, oh god, please wake up!"

Charlie slowly came to, whimpering and wincing in pain. Her eyes opened, and when she saw Jo, she shot up onto her feet, stumbling as she did.

"He - fuck - he took our brother, Jo, _he fucking took him_."

"What? Who!?"

"That smug Italian sonofabitch TOOK BEN." Charlie snarled as she spun around trying to catch the Alpha's scent. When she caught it, she snarled louder and took off with her sister following.

Up ahead they heard the Impala's engine starting, and by the time they got there, the Impala was gone.

The sisters stood there panting in the cloud of dust it had left. Something on the ground caught Jo's eye, and she knelt to pick up Ben's necklace. The black cord had been ripped, like it had been torn off of Ben.

Charlie fell to her knees.

"I tried to stop him," she sobbed.

More running footsteps. Sam and Dean burst forward, hastily dressed and visibly upset.

"What's going on here? Where's Baby?" Dean glared between his two daughters. "And where the hell is Benny!?"

"I tried," Charlie whispered, staring through the trees in the direction the Impala had gone. Sam knelt in front of Charlie, grasping her shoulders.

"Charlie, tell me what happened."

"Ben... he came into our tent. With an axe." Charlie swallowed. "I asked him what he was doing and he ran, so I followed him... I saw, on his neck..." Anger rippled through the Alpha girl. "A claiming bite. And that fucking... Giò... he attacked me, I tried to fight him but..."

Horror and anger filled the air.

"He took Ben. He made Ben try to kill Jo and then he fucking _took him_."

Sam's hands fell to his sides. He looked like someone had just driven a knife through his heart.

The same look was on Dean's face but slowly it morphed into something that surpassed fury. Dean's whole body shook with it. Claws slid out of his fingers and into his palms as his fists clenched and dripped blood.

He opened his mouth to let out a roar that shook the forest around him.


	19. Chapter 19

Sam fought desperately to keep himself under control.

An Alpha had come to them, lied to them, wormed his way into their family, fucked their youngest child, marked their child as his, and had tried to make one of their beautiful children kill another.

Sam had never felt hatred like this before. But it wasn't just hatred for the manipulative Alpha that he felt - it was hatred for himself as well.

He had trusted the Alpha. He had _wanted_ to trust him, he had asked _Dean_ to trust him.

And their son was paying the price for Sam's stupidity.

Sam wasn't even aware he'd returned to the campsite until Garth, tired and concerned, suddenly filled his vision.

"Sam! Hey! What's going on, man?"

"Italian piece of shit took our son and our car," Dean growled as he approached, his daughters beside him. Garth's family were all still asleep in their tents. "We're going after him."

The Winchesters offered Garth no further explanation as they got in Sam's truck, Dean and the girls in the cab and Sam in the back.

"No, wait!" Garth gripped the truck's door before Dean could shut it, holding it with superhuman strength, concern etched deep in his face. "If you're going after this guy, I'm coming with you, I'll help!"

"Garth... you've saved our asses more than enough times," said Dean with quiet gratitude. "We are not risking yours again. Please, stay with your family and keep yourselves safe."

Sam reached a hand out to Garth. "Stay," he echoed Dean's soft plea, squeezing their friend's shoulder. Garth let go of the door but the concern didn't leave his face. He let out an anxious sigh.

"Y'all be careful. Go get your boy back and teach that Romulan son of a bitch a lesson."

Dean and Sam nodded fiercely, Garth stepped away from the truck, and the Winchesters roared off after Ben.

"Do you think he's taking Ben to the house he and Silvana are staying at?" Charlie asked, her voice quiet and afraid.

"I don't know but that's where I'm heading, because whether he's there or not, I'm going to tear that bitch apart." Dean's grip dented the steering wheel as he spoke. "Coming here and fucking with my family."

"Giò tried to tell me it was her killing Dei."

"Silvana told me it was Omegas that were killing Dei," Jo murmured. She looked up to see her family gazing at her suspiciously. And she realized that it was time to be honest with them.

"She spoke in my head... she told me that. I didn't believe her." Jo's eyes were on the dark road ahead. "She said no one but Giò believed her. She was right, it's Omegas - but Giò is the one making them do it."

"Anything else you wanna tell us? Like why this guy is killing people like you, and why you're keeping things from us?"

There was hurt in Charlie's voice and it pained Jo. With difficulty, she met her sister's eyes.

"There are... there are things I'm able to do that I haven't told you guys about," said Jo ruefully. "I was scared of what you would think of me if you knew, because it makes me afraid of _myself_. Silvana has the same abilities, and she told me to keep them secret to keep myself safe, and I think these abilities are the reason why Giò is trying to kill Dei."

"You talkin' about the mind-reading?"

Jo looked up at Dean in shock.

"Kid, I've known you since you were a bun in my oven," muttered Dean. "You think I wouldn't have noticed that?"

Jo then looked at her twin, who shrugged.

"We knew. We just didn't get why you didn't say anything about it."

Jo gave a soft laugh of disbelief and shook her head.

"You said 'abilities'. Plural." Charlie studied her twin. "Is one of these other secret abilities what you used on that guy who tried to beat me up at school - did you make him bail outta there?"

"What the - someone tried to beat you up!?" Dean spluttered.

"Yeah," Jo muttered, "some homophobic prick." Jo gave her sister a somewhat apologetic look. "I just didn't want you to get hurt, or get yourself in trouble... so I made that guy let you go." Her father and sister frowned at her. "It doesn't seem to work on everyone - Silvana said it only works on weak minds."

Charlie hummed. "So, are those all of your superpowers?"

"No," said Sam through the opened rear window of the truck's cab. His daughters turned to him in confusion; he was still facing the rear of the truck. He turned his head to look at Jo.

"I saw you shift," he said. "The night before we left. I opened the door to check on you - you were asleep, and you were a wolf. And I watched you shift back."

Jo's mouth hung open. "I didn't know it happened in my sleep. I... it happened accidentally, on the full moon before Giò and Silvana came. That was the first time it ever happened to me." She looked at her fathers and her sister and she hung her head in shame.

"I thought you guys would be afraid of me if you knew all of this. I thought you wouldn't want me around."

Charlie pulled her sister into a fierce hug.

"I know you're the smart one," whispered Charlie, "but you're fucking stupid sometimes." She pulled back to look in Jo's eyes. "You are our _family_. You're a goddamn Winchester, and in this family, we support each other."

"No matter what we're going through," Dean added firmly. Jo looked into his eyes and into Sam's eyes and she saw love there, not fear.

"So," said Dean, "the Eurobitch told you to keep all this from us, huh? And she told you to watch out for Omegas? Sounds like two more good reasons to kill her."

"I don't know," said Jo, shaking her head. "Why would she be okay with Giò killing Dei? And why would Giò have told Charlie that Silvana's behind this, if he's working with her?"

"If you're telling me she's innocent, I'm gonna have to call bullshit," argued Dean.

"I think she might be innocent of this," Jo insisted. "Giò wants us to go after her! This is the man who manipulated and kidnapped my baby brother, and I have no intention of doing what he wants."

The others in the truck considered this. Charlie surveyed Jo.

"What do you think we should do then?"

"We go to that house," said Jo, voice hard with determination. "Because whether Ben's there or not, we'll find answers there that will lead us to him."

The old house that Giò and Silvana were renting sat sad and lonely amidst long-neglected fields outside of Lebanon. When the Winchesters arrived, they saw no sign of the Impala, which neither dissipated nor deepened their concern. Jo strode right up to the door and knocked, flanked by her fathers and sister.

Silvana opened the door. Her eyes were tired but worried, hair sleep-tousled.

"What are you all doing here?"

"Where's your cousin?"

Silvana frowned. "I do not know."

She gasped when she was suddenly slammed against the wall opposite the door, held there by apparently nothing at all. Jo walked toward her, eyes dark.

"Your cousin took my little brother," growled Jo. Sam and Dean stood beside her with machetes drawn. " _Where did he take him?"_

"Giò took your brother?" Silvana didn't try to fight the force that pinned her; she gave Jo a searching look, and Jo could feel the woman peering into her mind. Jo tried to focus on blocking her thoughts but it was too late and she saw understanding dawn on Silvana's face, shadowed by heartbreak.

"Giò... he claimed your brother? And he made your brother try to..."

Sam's machete raised to Silvana's throat and his eyes blazed red. " _Where is my son_ ," he asked her, voice as deadly as the blade he held.

It was Jo who answered him.

"She didn't know." Jo gazed pityingly at the woman against the wall. "She didn't know what Giò was doing."

"How the hell do you _know_ that she doesn't know??" Dean growled. He kept his eyes on the Dei woman as he stood between her and his daughters.

"I can hear her thoughts," Jo said softly. "She thought Omegas were killing Dei. Giò killed the Omegas after they killed the Dei and he told Silvana he was protecting her from them."

The Winchesters watched tears roll down Silvana's face. Her pain, powerful and genuine, filled the air.

"I trusted him." Silvana was released from her hold and she slumped to the bottom of the wall. "He was like a brother to me. I thought he was the only one I could trust." Silvana's fists clenched and the lights flickered in the force of her anger.

"He was using you," said Jo. "To find other Dei. And he's been using Omegas to kill them."

Silvana issued a growl and the light above her exploded.

"He wants us to kill you," murmured Charlie.

Jo moved closer and crouched in front of Silvana. "Help us fight him. Help us get Ben back, please."

The two elder Winchesters rumbled with unrest. "No way am I trusting this bitch," said Dean as Sam gripped his machete more tightly. Jo turned to her Omega father.

"She can help us get Ben back."

"Or she's putting on an act so she can help her scumbag of a cousin, and I ain't buyin' the act!"

"If you want to kill me, then kill me," Silvana told him, her voice broken. "I do not have any reason to live; the only person I believed in betrayed me." Silvana shut her eyes. "And you do not need me to find your son, because Giò has taken him back to your bunker."

"And how would you know that," hissed Sam, "if you're so innocent?"

Silvana gave a dark laugh. "Innocent is something I never claimed to be. But I know my cousin. I know where he would have run to; your bunker is the only place he would have gone. It is a fortress, well protected and warded, and he will use that against you."

"Can you see into his mind?" Jo asked her. Silvana shook her head defeatedly.

"He is blocking me. I was not sure why, until you got here, until I found out... what he has done." Silvana looked up at the Winchesters, surveying them with sadness in her eyes. "Giò seems to want me dead. Perhaps... if you give him what he wants, he will give you back your boy."

The Winchesters gazed warily at each other. Sam and Dean both loosened their grip on their machetes. They didn't necessarily want to let Silvana live, but she didn't seem to want to live either, which threw them off. And then an idea came to Sam.

"So you're saying you have nothing to do with this, with what your cousin's doing," murmured Sam, and Silvana nodded solemnly in response. "Then we're gonna give you a chance to prove it. To help us."

"Sammy!"

Sam looked up to see alarm in Dean's eyes, and he understood the alarm there, he felt it too.

Sam raised his hand to his mouth and bit into it, letting blood pool in his palm, and he saw understanding sweep over his brother before Dean's eyes shuttered in focus as he prayed.

Castiel and Crowley appeared distraught before the Winchesters.

"Someone's taken Ben?" Horror filled Castiel's voice and it was written all over Crowley's face. Sam pointed a bloody finger at Silvana.

"Her cousin did."

Silvana was pinned against the wall again, this time by Crowley whose eyes were demonic red as fury twisted his face.

"You'd better return my devilson," he growled.

"I didn't take him," gasped Silvana, "but I will help you get him back!"

"I thought the Alpha boy was trustworthy," Castiel whispered. "I - I stopped watching over the children, I thought they were safe." The angel regarded Sam and Dean with shame in his eyes. "I let Ben down. I'm supposed to be his godfather, and I failed him."

Sam and Dean each laid a hand on Castiel's shoulders. "You didn't," said Dean. "No more than we did. We thought that guy was trustworthy too."

"Cas," said Sam, "can you go to the bunker, see if Ben's there?"

Castiel nodded. A look of concentration came over his face - followed by consternation.

"I can't," he muttered. "I'm trying... he must have warded the bunker against angels."

Dean cast Crowley a worried and hopeful gaze. "Can you get in there?"

Crowley released Silvana and tried, but nothing happened and his fury grew. "Warded against demons as well, it seems. Crafty little werewolf - I'm going to enjoy sodomizing his soul for an eternity."

For once, Sam and Dean were totally on board with the demon king's sadism.

"So we know he's there in the bunker," muttered Dean, "throwing up all kinds of wards, which means _we_ probably won't be able to get in either." Dean cursed under his breath. "So... we go there, we bring Fay Wray," he gestured to Silvana, "and we throw her to the monster in the hopes he'll let our son go?"

"Was... was that a 1933 King Kong reference?" Charlie squinted at Dean in disbelief. "You are _the_ weirdest kind of nerd to ever exist, I'm pretty sure."

"I said I would help you, not let you _throw me to the monster_ ," protested Silvana before Crowley sealed her mouth shut.

"Feathers and I will escort the lady there," said the demon, exchanging a nod with the angel. "We'll make sure she behaves."

"And what if... what if Giò still refuses to let Ben go?" Sam's voice was faint and fearful. "How can we... if we can't get inside the bunker, we can't stop him from hurting Ben..."

"Maybe _we_ can't," murmured Jo, an idea alighting behind her hazel eyes. "But we know someone who can."


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Props to NIN for helping me write this chapter, particularly the song Eraser

Ben obediently followed his Alpha around the bunker as Giò warded it against intruders and sealed all the entrances, using defensive spells that would resist both physical force and telekinetic power.

Ben's eyes moved over the Alpha. _His_ Alpha. He had to keep reminding himself of that. Giò was his, and he was Giò's. And what was happening now was happening because of Ben, because of the choices Ben had made. Charlie getting hurt. Jo nearly getting killed. It was Ben's fault.

Ben wiped at his eyes and cleared his throat.

"Why are we here?" he asked Giò. "Why don't we just leave, go somewhere that my family won't find us? Go somewhere that we can be together in peace."

Giò raised a brow at him.

"Do you truly believe that your family would allow that? That they would not follow us wherever it is that we would go?"

Ben hung his head. "No," he quietly admitted.

"Clever Omega." Giò smirked. Ben trembled as Giò tipped up his chin and stroked a thumb over his mouth. "We are here, in your home, because it is the one place capable of keeping your family and your angel and demon friends out."

"We can't stay here forever," whispered Ben. "We would starve."

"I have no intention of staying here forever," said Giò, dropping his hand to the circular red bitemark on Ben's neck. "I intend to rid the world of Dei - to _save_ the world from Dei. Your family, no doubt, will be bringing my cousin here. I will ask them to kill her, and they will, to get you back. And when I give you back to them, my faithful Omega..." Giò leaned in to whisper in Ben's ear, voice threaded with Alpha power. "You will do your duty and kill Jo. And after she is dead, you will kill the rest of your hunter family. And then, my loving Omega, we can be together."

Giò kissed the scar he'd given Ben and Ben fought back nausea.

::

The Winchesters arrived at the bunker to find the kings of Heaven and Hell standing outside its front entrance with Silvana standing between them. The Dei woman had an air of miserable resignation about her.

"Ben and Giò are both in there," Castiel told the Winchesters when they approached. "I can sense them. Ben isn't hurt."

"But that little weasel of an Alpha will be," Crowley murmured with dark promise in his voice. "Soon enough."

"Giò has warded the bunker against other Children," said Silvana, confirming what they'd all suspected. "The warding will not let us come any nearer than this."

Sam tested this by trying to approach the bunker's door and came up against an invisible barrier.

"So," said Crowley, gesturing to Silvana, "shall we cut the bitch's head off and trade it for my devilson?" Silvana began to quake.

"No," said Jo. Silvana looked at the younger Dei with relief and hope. "She isn't responsible for this. Giò used her, and he wants us to kill her." Jo paused and gazed towards the bunker, silent and focused. "And he's still going to make Ben try to kill us, even if he gives Ben back."

"You can hear his thoughts."

Jo looked back at Silvana, who looked slightly proud.

"Yeah," Jo murmured. "I don't think he's trying too hard to block them now."

"Cocky bastard," muttered Charlie.

"Okay. So we don't kill you," Dean said to Silvana bitterly. "What the hell do we do then? Sit out here and hope he hands Ben back out of the goodness of his backstabbing heart?"

"What we do is we go in there and we get my brother back," said Jo. She squinted down the road leading away from the bunker. Growing rapidly louder was the sound of tires crunching over the road's rough texture, until a truck roared into view. It was Apocalypse Bobby's truck; a rusty multicolored beast that shrieked to a stop behind Sam's shining and well-maintained red pickup.

Jack leapt out of the driver's seat and Claire exited the passenger side. Both grabbed shotguns from the back of the truck before running up to meet the others.

Dean and Sam stared at the two of them. "How did you..."

"I told Jack what happened," Jo answered. "I asked him to come help us."

"Me and Claire were tracking a vampire in Wichita," said Jack, the concern that was already on his face increasing when he looked at his hunting partner. "I told Claire she should stay there."

"And you actually expected me to listen to that?" Claire scoffed.

"So," Charlie said, " _we_ can't get into the bunker, as Children of Romulus, but humans can." She frowned at Jack and Claire. "But we can't just let you guys go in alone!"

Sam nodded his agreement. "That guy in there can't be wounded and he can't be killed by silver - no way am I letting you two go in there alone."

Silvana cleared her throat, drawing everyone's attention. She quirked an eyebrow.

"You do know how to dispel the warding, do you not?" she asked the elder Winchesters. "A human could go inside and take down the warding keeping you out."

"So you could," said Crowley to the two humans. "And I can put a little hoodoo on those of you going in, to mask your scents and keep the element of surprise once you're inside."

"I know an Enochian protection prayer that will help you," added Castiel.

"So I go in, remove the ward, and you and Sam follow me in," Jack said to Dean, who hesitated before nodding.

"We'll tell you how to get in and de-ward the place. I'm guessing this guy has sealed all the doors, because unfortunately for us, he's not stupid."

"But there's one way in he doesn't know about." Sam and Jo smirked at each other. "Then once Jack's in and the ward is down, Dean and I will go in and get Ben back."

The women in the group frowned as one.

"We're going in with you, right?" asked Charlie.

"No," Sam insisted. "You're not going in there. We're not risking you or your sister - you two are staying out here."

Charlie stared at her father in disbelief.

"Are you fucking KIDDING ME. My brother is being held hostage in there and you want me to just sit on my ass-"

"Hey," Dean warned, "easy now."

"You want me to be a good little girl and stay out of the fight because I'm too fragile, is that it, you think girls can't fight?"

Sam growled. "That's not - I never - Jack is going in so that your father and I can go in, and we don't want anyone else getting hurt."

"What makes you think I'll get hurt?" Charlie growled back at him, fangs bared. "What makes you think I won't fuck that sorry excuse for an Alpha up?"

Jo was about to step between the two angry Alphas, but before she could, Claire stepped forward.

"Hey, look, I know where you're coming from here," Claire said to Charlie with a hand on her shoulder. "I have been in your shoes, feeling like people are just constantly underestimating me. But your dads... they are _not_ underestimating you. They're afraid and they're just trying to protect their kids, trying to protect you, because they love you, so don't get mad at them for that."

Charlie deflated, although she still looked upset and hurt. She took a deep calming breath, muttered an apology at Sam and he apologized in return.

"Besides," said Claire with a wicked grin, "I think I might know how we can lure this asshole out, and I'm gonna need your help."

::

In a cave deep in the woods outside of the bunker, Sam and Dean watched and waited as Jack disappeared through the cave wall. The Aquarian Star that marked the passage from the other end was also etched into the rock here, although the symbol on this side was only visible to the Men of Letters and their Legacies.

A few minutes later, the elder Winchesters felt the invisible barrier between them and the symbol dissolve, and they too pushed through the wall and into the bunker.

Sam and Dean caught their Omega son's scent and the scent of the Alpha who had taken the boy, but neither of their scents were nearby. Neither Sam nor Dean could pick up their own scents or Jack's scent, so they figured Crowley's spell was working.

"Jack, you should go back out," Sam urged in a whisper. "Stay with your sisters."

"I'm not leaving you two," Jack whispered back. "I'm not leaving my brother. I'm a hunter, it's my job to kill monsters, and I'm going to kill that monster if it's the last thing I do."

Anxiety clawed at both Sam and Dean, but they relented, and the three Winchesters swiftly and silently made their way to the bunker's garage, where the Impala had been taken.

Dean nearly wept at being reunited with his Baby. He pressed himself to her hood, until Sam elbowed him in the side with annoyance, and then Dean went to her trunk and from her arsenal he retrieved the pistol Sam had made him.

"Let's go hunt us a monster," he growled low, and he loaded the gun and set off through the bunker's halls with his brother and his son behind him.

::

Giò turned towards a noise he heard from further within the bunker; he and Ben were in the War Room, Ben slumped at the bottom of the stairs while Giò paced the length of the room.

But now Giò stopped, listened, scented the air. Ben gulped, stared at the gun Giò was holding, one of the guns the Winchesters kept in the bunker's firing range.

"Did you hear something?"

Giò ignored him for a moment, then smiled and turned back to him.

"Nothing. Disappointing, no? I thought they would be here already. How sad that must be for you, your family taking their time to come and retrieve you."

Ben ground his teeth together, angry tears welling in his eyes.

Then came the sound of pounding on the bunker's door above him, and a shout through the door.

"Hey wolf-boy!" the person shouted; the voice was a woman's, and familiar to Ben. Claire's voice. But Giò didn't know her, and thus he squinted in confusion at the door. "I got an offer for ya!"

"Who are you?" Giò called out suspiciously as he ascended the stairs.

"A hunter who's been after the Winchesters for a long time," Claire replied. "And I want to thank you for finally getting them off their guard and helping me catch them, I never would've caught them on my own."

Giò's suspicion only grew. He gazed at the door with narrowed eyes.

"You caught the Winchesters? How exactly did you do that?"

"Powerful tranquilizers and chains forged with holy fire. Got 'em chained to the railing here - say howdy, Winchesters!"

Giò and Ben could hear people whimpering on the other side of the door.

"I said," Claire snarled, "SAY HELLO."

There was a frightened cry, and Ben recognized the voice as Jo's. "Oh god, please-"

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY SISTER," Charlie's voice roared. Chains rattled violently behind the door.

"Please," pleaded Sam's voice, "leave our kids alone." Dean's voice pleaded the same, but something sounded off about his and Sam's voices. It was their voices, but it wasn't them speaking - Ben couldn't explain how he knew this but he did.

His Alpha smiled evilly at him.

"So, your family _has_ come for you, how lovely."

"I have your little blonde friend here too," said Claire. "Why don't you say hi too, blondie?"

Something heavy thudded against the door and Silvana cried pitifully through it. She pleaded in Italian. For a fraction of a second, anguish came over Giò's face at the sound of his cousin's pain, but he swept it away just as quickly.

"Now," Claire began, "from what the Winchesters have told me, you seem to want this friend of yours dead. Pretty much everyone wants her dead, it seems. I can take care of that for you, and I can take care of the Winchesters for you too. But I understand you're holding one of them in there, is that right? Their boy?"

Giò smirked again. "Yes, I have him."

"Thanks for the confirmation, but I'd like to hear the kid's voice so I can be sure."

Ben swallowed nervously. And when he looked at Giò, the fear he felt was genuine.

"I'm in here," said Ben shakily. "Please, whoever you are, you don't have to hurt us, we don't hurt people, I swear-"

"I didn't ask your opinion, kid," Claire snapped. "Alright, to the guy who took the kid, again, I'm grateful to you, you did half my job for me here. So I'm feeling generous and I'm willing to let you go, let you leave this country and go back to wherever you're from. But I need you to hand over the Winchester boy first. Send him out here, and once I have him, I'll kill them all and I'll leave, and you'll be free to do the same. You can't hole up in there forever, so I'm giving you a way out. If you don't take it, I'll have to kill you too, and I can wait outside this bunker as long as it takes to do that. So what's it gonna be, buddy - you wanna live or you wanna die?"

::

Sam, Dean and Jack listened to Claire speaking through the door - Sam and Dean were disturbed to hear their own voices behind that door. Then they remembered that demons were able to sound like other people. Sam and Dean smirked. _Thank the Antichrist for Crowley._

Neither Giò nor Ben seemed to be aware of the three others in the bunker with them, the Alpha boy and Omega boy focused on what was going on outside the bunker door.

Sam and Dean had given Jack the pistol that would kill anything, given that he was the human among them and needed the edge over the monster they were going up against. Sam and Dean were both armed with machetes.

After making sure Ben was as yet unharmed, Dean slowly and silently led the three out of the hallway and into the War Room. Giò and Ben were at the top of the stairs, still both watching the door. Dean ducked into a secluded corner with eyes still on his target, and Sam also hid away.

They didn't know how they were going to get to Giò without first drawing his attention. They would have to climb the stairs, and he would surely see them coming. They were afraid of what he might do to their young son in that scenario.

But Jack didn't step out of sight. He had a clear shot at Giò from where he stood.

His heart thundering in his ears, he raised the pistol, and he thumbed off the safety as he aimed it at the Alpha who had taken his little brother.

Before he could fire, before he knew what was happening, there was a bang, and then there was pain, and he fell to the floor as blood poured from his side.

Sam and Dean watched in horror as Jack fell. They looked up to see Giò, turned sideways to them, holding a gun at his hip, the gun he had shot Jack with. He smiled at them.

"That was an interesting trick, making it sound like you were outside, you will have to tell me how you managed it," Giò called down to them.

Sam let out a booming roar that shook the bunker's walls, eyes burning red with hatred up at Giò. He started to charge forward but Dean grabbed him.

"Sam, listen to me, take Jack outside, do it _now_."

Sam growled and tried to get out of Dean's hold but Dean strengthened his grip.

"SAM, GOD DAMMIT, TAKE JACK OUT TO CAS!" Furious tears filled Dean's eyes. "You save our oldest son and I will save our youngest. I need you to do this. _GO, DAMMIT!!"_

The same tears shone in Sam's eyes. It went against everything in him to flee, when this Alpha was threatening both of his and Dean's sons. It went against everything in him to leave his Omega to fight this Alpha alone.

But his Omega was Dean Winchester, he reminded himself. Dean Winchester, who had taught Sam how to fight. Dean Winchester, bane of every monster that ever walked the earth. Dean was no helpless Omega.

So, fighting through his grief and his fury, Sam forced himself to pick Jack up and run with him back the way they had come into the bunker. Dean watched them go before turning back to Giò, picking up the pistol Jack had dropped. Giò was standing behind Ben, and Dean didn't have a clear shot. Tears were streaming down his young son's terrified face.

"Hiding behind my kid." Dean's voice was a low animal growl. "How brave of you. Why don't you come down here and face me like a man?"

"You want me to fight you?" answered Giò with a laugh in his voice. "An Omega wanting to fight an Alpha?"

"That's funny to you, huh? Come on down, I got some more jokes for you." Dean cracked his knuckles. "Come on, you fucking coward."

The sharp scent of Giò's anger cut through the air.

"You want me to come down? You want to fight me? Throw the gun away, and then we will fight."

Dean tossed the pistol into a corner of the room. Giò emerged from behind Ben, and the two men glared at one another.

"Benny, I want you to stay up there," Dean ordered. "No matter what happens. Stay there, son."

Giò leapt down and landed on the map table, cracking its surface. He stood tall above Dean, muscles straining at his shirt. His eyes were afire, promising destruction, and the fangs in his mouth and the claws on his fingers promised the same.

"No one tells my Omega what to do," rumbled the Alpha, "but _me_."

Giò struck quickly, too quickly for Dean to block. He slashed Dean's face open, blinding Dean with blood. He then went for Dean's throat but Dean blocked him this time, grabbing Giò's arm and throwing him across the room. Giò stumbled but didn't fall; Dean wiped the blood out of his eyes, bared fangs at the Alpha.

Giò laughed again. "I thought you wanted to fight? Is this what you call fighting?" He began to circle the table towards Dean. Dean moved to keep the table between them.

Giò stopped, cocked his head at Dean. Dean stopped as well.

"I was expecting more of a fight from you Winchesters," Giò murmured thoughtfully. "Having learned about you, what you used to be. How non-humans used to fear you. The Mighty Winchesters. But your Alpha daughter went down fairly quickly... as did your human son... and your Omega son, well... wasn't very long before he was begging for my knot. You raised such a good little bitch for me."

Tears stung at Dean's eyes again and he let out a roar to rival Sam's as he leapt across the table toward Giò. But he should have known, from the smugness on Giò's face... he should have known not to play into Giò's hand like that.

Giò grabbed Dean when he was near enough and flung him hard into one of the room's stone pillars, hard enough to crack the stone, hard enough to break Dean's spine, and Dean crumpled to the floor. He lost sense of the world around him for a long moment, overwhelmed with pain. Faintly he heard his son's footsteps clanging down the stairs and heard his son's anguished cries, and he tried to protest, tried to tell his son to go back up the stairs, to stay safe.

As his vision started to clear again, he noticed his pistol lying on the floor near him.

He could still protect his son.

He shut his eyes as he weakly picked up the gun. He prayed to whoever was listening for strength enough to do this.

He opened his eyes and struggled to stay focused on the shape of the Alpha above him, and then he raised his gun to point it at the Alpha's heart.

But his son's hand closed over the gun's barrel.

Ben's grief-filled face became clear in front of him. "You can't," Ben whispered, half-sobbing. "You can't kill him."

This hurt Dean worse than his broken spine, so much worse.

Behind Ben, Giò laughed. "You see? Such a good little bitch, and he is _all mine_."

Ben took the pistol out of Dean's weak grip. He stood up, tears falling onto his father's face. His Adam's apple bobbed, his hand shook.

"And you're mine to kill," Ben whispered.

He turned, and he put a bullet in his Alpha's heart.


	21. Chapter 21

Ben numbly watched Giò's face fall, before his body fell lifeless to the bunker's floor.

He watched the light in his Alpha's eyes die.

His Alpha.

He had killed his Alpha.

And then pain like Ben had never known ripped through his chest, through his whole body. He fell to the ground with Giò and cried out with it, cried out for him.

"What have I done? Oh god, _what the fuck have I done?"_

He stared at the gun he'd shot Giò with. There were still bullets in it. He wept as he picked the gun up and turned it toward his own chest.

The gun was smacked out of his hand, and he stared up through his tears to see his Omega father's face. Dean couldn't stand up, still crippled by the damage to his spine, but he knelt above his son, pain in his eyes to match Ben's.

"Benny," Dean croaked, "I'm so sorry."

But Ben didn't want his apologies, didn't deserve his apologies, and when he looked at Dean, he could hear his Alpha ordering Ben to kill him. _Kill them all for me._

Ben scrambled to his feet, backed away from his father, and he ran into the bunker's hallway.

Dean watched his son run from him and moments later he distantly heard the sound of the dungeon's door slamming. Dean shut his eyes, wincing. He felt his bones knitting themselves back together. He looked down at the Alpha that had tried to destroy him and his family, and he wished the Alpha alive again, so that Dean could have the satisfaction of killing him.

Dean picked up his pistol and stuck it in the waistband of his jeans, then carefully lifted himself to his feet when he felt strength return to his legs. He slowly ascended the stairs, and when he reached the door he wiped away the sigils that had been painted beside it to block angels and demons from entering. Castiel and Crowley appeared beside him, and together they dispelled the magic that sealed the door shut.

Dean leaned on Castiel as Crowley opened the door. Jo and Charlie were the first ones through - they ran to Dean and crushed him in a hug. Dean grimaced and hugged his daughters back.

Sam came through next, carrying an unconscious Jack in his arms, the two of them soaked in Jack's blood. Dean's heart twisted at the sight.

"Is he-"

"He's okay," said Sam, voice hoarse. "Cas healed him."

"He just needs some time to recover," said Castiel softly. The angel sighed. "I... I'm not supposed to heal anyone like this anymore, but... I couldn't fail him again."

Dean pulled Castiel into a hug, held him a moment and patted his back before releasing him.

"Where's Ben?" Sam asked. The question was in his daughters' eyes as well.

Dean gazed down at where Giò's body laid on the floor. "Benny killed him," Dean whispered. "And he... he ran off after." Dean quaked as he remembered his son pointing a gun at his own heart. "I heard him go into the dungeon."

Jo and Charlie immediately took off in the direction of the dungeon. Sam moved to follow them but Dean stopped him.

"Take Jack to the infirmary. Stay with him," Dean begged Sam. "Until you're sure he's gonna be okay. And I'll stay with Benny." Dean brushed Jack's hair out of his face, then reached up to cup Sam's face and pull him down for a soft kiss.

When they parted, Sam obediently made his way down the stairs and toward the infirmary with Jack, Castiel and Claire on his heels. Dean and Crowley watched as Silvana slowly approached the bunker's door. She looked wretched, eyes bloodshot and makeup sliding down her face. She hesitated at the threshold.

"Coming or going? Make up your mind," Dean muttered at her. She dropped her eyes from his as she stepped forward.

Dean turned to Crowley. "Can you watch her until I get back? I need to go make sure Benny's alright." Crowley nodded at him, and Dean set off after Ben, deliberately stepping on Giò's face as he went.

Dean found his daughters standing outside the dungeon. Jo was crying and Charlie was trying to console her.

"He told us to get out," said Charlie, voice thick with pain. "He... he said horrible things to Jo."

Dean drew his girls to him, kissing their foreheads. They curled into his arms like they'd done when they were little, despite being taller than him now.

"Go find your father and Jack," he whispered. "I'll stay here with your little brother."

The girls left reluctantly, and Dean waited outside the dungeon's door for a minute, afraid of what he would find inside. Sick to death of seeing his children try to self-destruct.

 _Too much like their fathers_ , he thought with despair.

He opened the door and found that his teenage son had chained one of his arms to the wall of the dungeon. Ben's other arm was wrapped around himself and he was curled up against the wall. When his eyes lifted to Dean's, they were even more bloodshot than Silvana's. He held his hand out to Dean.

"I can't... I can't do this one by myself." Ben's voice wavered. "Please. Can you do it for me?" Ben looked up at the other manacle hanging from the wall.

Dean set down the pistol he was carrying on the table near the dungeon's door. "I'm not gonna chain you up, son."

Anger and pain flickered in Ben's eyes. "You need to."

"Why?"

"I'm going to kill you if you don't," said Ben through gritted teeth. "I'm going to kill all of you. I have to."

Hatred for Giò coursed through Dean, but he did his best to stay calm. "No, you won't, and no, you don't." He walked forward and knelt in front of Ben. "Giò told you to do this?"

Ben flung his head back against the wall, eyes squeezed shut and tears leaking from them.

"He's gone, Benny, you don't have to-"

Ben wailed in agony.

"My Alpha," the Omega boy gasped, "I... I betrayed him... I can't..."

Ben writhed against the wall like he was being torn apart inside. He wept and he begged Dean to make it stop. Dean's efforts to stay calm deteriorated and tears sprung from his own eyes; he sat beside his son and pulled the boy into his arms, and they cried together.

::

Castiel left the bunker, as he was needed in Heaven. Jack was still unconscious, but he was alive and would be well once Castiel's grace finished healing him. Claire stayed by his side in the infirmary, and Dean stayed with Ben in the dungeon.

Sam and Jo and Charlie wandered into the War Room, still shaken from all that had happened. But Crowley was calmly sitting at the map table, whispering something to the red snake curled around his shoulders; Silvana sat beside him, staring at her cousin's body on the floor with a lost expression on her face.

Charlie laughed quietly at Crowley talking to the snake. "Going for the full Voldemort, huh?"

"For the last bloody time, I am not _Voldemort_."

"Whatever you say, Dark Lord." Charlie sat beside Crowley and held out her hand to the snake, letting the snake scent her with its tongue. "Is this Nagini?"

Crowley smirked. "This is Samantha."

Sam spluttered at that. "Dammit, Crowley!"

"What, you think I named her after you? Is your name Samantha? Not everything is about _you_ , Moose." Crowley's eyes glittered mischievously. He made a kissyface at Samantha. "Samantha and I were just discussing what sort of eternal torment shall be inflicted on this wretched creature before us." Crowley kicked at Giò's body and Silvana flinched.

"I was thinkin' like... non-stop prison showers?" offered Charlie. "But with Leviathans? Like... big nasty ones. Something beyond mere pain, something that reaches down into the pit of his soul-"

"Wait, but if he goes to Purgatory," Sam cut in, addressing Crowley, "how do you have any control over what happens to him?"

"I have very good friends in Purgatory," replied Crowley. He aimed a grin at Charlie. "Leviathan friends, as luck would have it." Charlie grinned back.

Crowley stood with a sigh. "Speaking of torture, I ought to get back to work." He eyed Sam with concern. "Will you all be alright for the time being?"

Sam nodded. "I think so. Thank you." Crowley nodded back, and a second later was gone.

Sam sat in a chair at the opposite end of the table from Silvana. Jo and Charlie sat on either side of Sam, laying their heads wearily on his shoulders. The three of them stared at the body on the floor.

"I wanted to be the one to kill him," Charlie muttered. Her father and sister made noises of agreement. Jo watched a tear fall down Silvana's cheek.

"Where will you go now?" she asked the Dei woman.

"I have no idea," Silvana whispered. "Perhaps... it is time for me to meet my end, as Giò has."

Sam frowned. "Why?"

Silvana kept on staring at Giò. "What he did... I enabled him to do. I am responsible for this. For the pain and the death he has caused." Silvana closed her eyes. "I am a fool to have trusted him."

Sam swallowed, knowing all too well what Silvana was feeling.

"He fooled my little brother too," Jo said softly. "But what happened is not my brother's fault, and it's not your fault either."

More tears fell down the Dei woman's face. She looked at the three Winchesters huddled together and smiled sadly.

"We used to have a loving family like yours," said Silvana in a faraway voice, her eyes back on Giò. "We all lived on a farm outside of Milan. Giò's parents, they were brother and sister, and my mother was their older sister." Silvana paused, eyes shining. "My mother loved to read, loved to learn, and that is how she met my father, who shared this love with her. When us children came along, my parents became our teachers. The leaders of our family.

"And then our family was torn apart. When I was thirteen, my parents took me into the city, to see an opera. A human girl had sat in my seat; I asked her to move, and she became angry with me. She pushed me to the ground, and in my anger I threw her across the room and hurt her badly. Police tried to capture me and my parents but we escaped - but hunters discovered what we were, and they tracked us down."

Silvana sniffed. "My parents sacrificed themselves to protect me. Giò's father was killed. The rest of us fled, up into the mountains near Switzerland; Giò's mother, Giò and his siblings, and me. And what was left of my family blamed me for what had happened." Silvana halted again, her voice stopped up by emotion. "I thought Giò was the only one who didn't."

The room fell silent a minute, and then Jo spoke again.

"Why did he do all this?" she asked, her eyes on the dead man in question. "Why make Omegas kill Dei?"

"I thought that Omegas were killing Dei because of what we represent," the Dei woman quietly answered. "We represent gods and Omegas represent humans, and humans have a long history of fighting gods. I didn't know that the Omegas were being forced to kill the Dei... and when Giò killed the Omegas, I thought it was to protect me. But what Giò did - pretending to want to help me, pretending to want to help you - this was his revenge against people like you and me. His revenge against Dei, for the death of his father and the destruction of our family."

"What's this about revenge for destroying families?" Dean asked as he entered the room, sitting beside his brother and their daughters and glaring at Silvana. "Better not be thinking of trying that with us, because if you try to hurt us, _that_ ," Dean pointed at Giò's body, "is what's gonna happen to you."

Sam reached out for Dean's hand, linking their fingers behind Jo. "How is Ben?" Sam asked worriedly.

"Not good." Dean continued to glare at Silvana. The hatred he felt was for the man on the ground, but that man being dead, Dean's hatred directed itself at the man's nearest living relative. "A fifteen-year-old newly-presented Omega, who was conned and claimed by a murderous monster of an Alpha, who's just killed that Alpha but not before he was ordered to kill his own family. No, I'd say he's the opposite of good."

Silvana looked away in shame. But slowly something overtook the shame on her face; her forehead creased with thought, her eyes widened, and she looked back up at the Winchesters with eyes bright and hopeful.

"You can cure him!"

The Winchesters frowned at her. "What are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"You can cure Ben," she told him. "If he was no longer an Omega, he would no longer be under his Alpha's command. He would be free of Giò."

Dean shook his head. "We tried the cure on me, it didn't work."

"Which cure did you try?"

"Werewolf cure. Blood of the one who turned me."

Now Silvana shook her head. "Of course that would not work, we are not werewolves - what I mean is a cure for Children of Romulus."

"You tellin' us there's a _cure_ for us? That would turn us human, _all of us_ human?"

"Crowley said there wasn't a cure," said Sam warily. "We asked him."

"I'm sure he does not know of it - it is not common knowledge, even among Children. Most Children are not interested in being humans. Myself included. But my parents knew of a cure, and they told me about it."

"So," said Charlie, narrowing her eyes at Silvana, "how exactly do you cure things like us?"

"You take water from the Tiber river," Silvana began, "and the petals of a rare, red heart-shaped flower that grows in Rome - we call it _il cuore di Roma_ , the Heart of Rome. And lastly, a drop of blood from a Dei. There is an incantation, and you drink this all together. And then you will be human."

Dean stood up and leaned over the table to glare at Silvana again.

"I don't believe you," he growled. "Talkin' about some miracle cure that'll save us, saying you want to help us. I didn't believe your cousin and _I don't believe you_. And I want you out of our home and out of our goddamn life." He pointed at the body on the floor. "You can help us take that trash outside and burn it, and after that, I want you gone."

Silvana looked up at him with hurt and anger but said nothing more. Sam ushered Jo and Charlie out of the room, but as they left they gazed at Silvana with sorrow and a yearning for the hope she had ignited in them. Sam, Dean and Silvana made their way outside with Giò's body and some shovels, kerosene and matches. Sam and Dean quickly dug a grave, kicked the body into it, doused it in kerosene and threw down a lit match.

Sam and Dean smiled with grim satisfaction as they watched Giò burn. Silvana wept beside them. And, even from the woods outside the bunker, Sam and Dean could hear the cries of their Omega son within.

"Bury the ashes," Dean muttered at his brother. Dean watched Silvana cry for a moment, then added, "Let her keep some if she wants."

Dean turned to go back to the bunker, to his son. After Dean was gone, Sam gazed down at the burning body below him. He hoped the soul that had inhabited the body would now know pain as great as what he had inflicted on others.

Sam's gaze moved onto the broken woman beside him. He hesitated, and then he placed a consoling hand on her shoulder.

::

With Giò having been reduced to ashes in the ground and Silvana having been banished, Sam and Dean had hoped for some semblance of peace to return to their life - but, as always, peace eluded them.

Dean had managed to coax Ben out of the dungeon, but Ben then shut himself up in his room like Charlie had done after her rut, and the only person Ben would allow into his room was Dean.

Jack hadn't yet woken up, still alive but unconscious. Castiel promised that he would wake, that it would just take some time. Claire kept a vigil at Jack's bedside, often joined by Jack's sisters.

Charlie raided the beer in the fridge again. Ben took beers for himself. Their parents didn't have it in them to scold their children for this.

Sam went for a run, trying to find peace in the familiar activity, in the fresh air around him, making sure to stop and piss on Giò's grave. He was relieved that at least Ben wasn't pregnant after all this, but he wished he could comfort his son. He wished he could feel like all was well, but he didn't. So he returned to the bunker to join his kids in getting drunk.

But as he made his way back home, he heard people up ahead, and he caught the scent of humans. Humans that he knew.

He saw a familiar SUV parked in front of the bunker and he couldn't help smiling.

"Sam!"

Jody Mills and Donna Hanscum rushed forward to hug him in greeting. The two older women had fully gray hair, Jody's still cut short and Donna's flowing loose over her shoulders. They looked at Sam with worry.

"We haven't heard from Claire for a while," said Donna. "Last we heard she was going after a vamp near here, and then nada."

"We've been calling and getting no answer - you haven't seen or heard any sign of her, have you?"

Sam let out a humorless laugh, and then set about explaining to Jody and Donna what had happened in the past few days. When they got inside, Jody and Donna rushed to Claire's side and their daughter broke down crying as she hugged them, apologizing for not answering their calls, overwhelmed with her grief.

" _Claire_."

The occupants of the room turned at the sound of the voice. The sound of Jack's voice, soft and scraping out of his throat.

Jack's eyes opened slowly, with effort. When they met Claire's, the blonde launched herself forward and seized Jack's lips in a kiss, making Jack's eyes slide shut again. The two of them pulled apart smiling.

"Welcome back, angel," Claire whispered at him with tears in her eyes. Jack smiled wide as he took her hand in his.

Jody beamed tearily at Sam and he beamed back. "That'd be the last step toward us all becoming a family," said Jody as she hooked her arms around both Sam and Donna and pulled them into a hug.


	22. Chapter 22

The Winchesters were elated to see Jack up and walking around again - although he wasn't doing much besides that yet, as his body was still working to heal itself. Jody and Donna returned home with the assurance that their daughter was safe, but moreover with glee at their daughter finding new love. Claire remained in the bunker, determined to never leave Jack's side again.

It was a bright spot in the dark place the rest of the Winchesters found themselves in.

Ben was a ghost haunting the bunker. Dean seemed to be the only thing tethering him there; when Dean was in Ben's room, Ben's pain diminished. Dean held his son as he wept. Once, maybe, he would have ordered Ben to stop. But not anymore. Not after what Ben had gone through. Not after what the whole family had gone through.

When Dean left Ben's room, the boy's pain returned to claim him, and Ben still wouldn't allow anyone other than Dean in his room. Not even Jack.

At night, Ben's wails drifted through the darkened halls.

Sam listened to them, shedding tears of his own as he sat in a corner of the library and drained a bottle of whiskey. Dean found him, pried the bottle out of Sam's hand, took Sam to bed.

"This is my fault."

Dean held Sam's face to stare into his eyes.

"Sammy. _No._ How could this possibly be your fault?"

"I should have listened to you. About that psycho of an Alpha. You knew not to trust him."

Dean brushed away Sam's tears. "No, I didn't. I wouldn't have let him come on the trip with us otherwise. I wanted to trust the guy too. Not just because you told me I should - don't get me wrong, Sammy, you know how much I value your opinion, but you don't tell me what to do."

Sam felt more tears fall. He kissed the hand that was on his face, kissed Dean's hand again and again.

He pressed his face to Dean's throat, his mouth against the scar he'd put there.

"Our baby deserved better," he whispered, almost choking on the words. Dean held him close and murmured with agreement.

Sam couldn't shake the feeling that he had failed as a father. He needed to help his son. And maybe... maybe there was a way.

If Ben could be cured.

In Jo's room, she and Charlie were curled up together on her bed. Charlie still feared for Jo's safety, and that's partly why she was in Jo's room, but it was also because being with her twin, in this room they had grown up in together, was the greatest comfort Charlie could find. The twins were lying on their sides, Charlie's head tucked under Jo's.

"You ever think," Charlie began, voice hushed against Jo's shoulder, "that maybe we just shouldn't exist at all?"

Sorrow pulled at Jo's features. She pulled back to look at her sister.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... D didn't want to have us when he found out he was pregnant with us."

Charlie watched Jo's eyebrows lift in surprise, and the younger twin's mouth twisted with a bitter smile.

"Ah. You thought I didn't know about that."

"How _did_ you know?"

"He told me one night. He'd been drinking, and he wasn't being mean with it. Just drunk and honest. I think... it was weighing on him, and he wanted to let it go." Charlie squinted at Jo. "Guessing you found out by reading his mind." Jo gave a guilty nod. "But... sometimes I wonder if maybe that instinct of his was right. Maybe it was a mistake to have us."

"You know if you said that to him he'd smack you in the head and call you crazy."

A laugh-snort came out of Charlie.

"I know he doesn't regret having us," said Jo. "Or Ben. Neither does Dad. They don't regret it any more than they regret having each other as brothers."

"You really don't think they regret that?"

"I know they don't. They regret how others might view them, yeah, but not how much they love each other. And not how much they love us."

Charlie fell quiet. Jo pushed her sister's red-and-black tangle of hair out of her face.

"You're not a mistake, sis. Neither am I, and neither is our little brother. The world's a fucked up place. People out there losing their minds at the fact that we're over here just existing, people out there who don't know us trying to tell us what we are. What do they know?"

Charlie started to smile.

"They don't know shit."

"Damn right they don't."

Charlie cast a searching look at Jo. "Have you heard from Silvana at all? Since she left?"

Jo shook her head. Charlie sighed.

"That cure she was talking about... I keep wondering... maybe we should have tried it."

Jo sighed. "I keep wondering that too." Jo looked past Charlie to where Ben's Celtic knot necklace lay on her nightstand, where it had been since Jo had picked it up off the ground of their campsite. She had tried to return it to Ben. He had thrown it back in her face and shouted for her to stay the fuck away from him. Possessed by the ghost of his cruel Alpha.

In the dark of his room, Ben curled up on the floor like a dog.

_Like the bitch that I am._

Jack's scent floated in from the hallway outside. Ben watched the shadows of his older brother's feet at the bottom of his door. Watched them and listened to Jack trying to be silent before Jack shuffled away again.

Jack kept doing this. Standing quietly at Ben's door then moving away again. And again.

Before this, Jack had asked several times if he could come in, and Ben had denied him. Ben wanted so badly to see his family, so very badly... but it wasn't safe for them.

He wouldn't say it aloud, but he was glad for Jack pacing outside his door, and he was glad for Dean's visits. Dean would come in, pull Ben into his arms, even if Ben was telling him not to. He would hug Ben and cry with him and neither of them would say a word. And in those moments, in his Omega father's arms, Ben felt safe. Something else he wouldn't say aloud.

He remembered being a little kid in those arms. Those times when he'd hurt himself and his Daddy Dean had wrapped him up in a hug and taken that pain away, pain that had felt like it could end the world. Broken bones, sliced skin. He wished for that kind of pain right now, the kind that could be taken away.

Giò's face flashed in his mind, Giò's voice in his ears. The memory of Giò's teeth in his throat. No, not a memory - they were still there.

Pain gripped him again. _You killed your Alpha! Murderer! Disobedient Omega bitch!_

Ben howled in agony, his heart burning to ash in his chest, and he reached out for his memories of love and comfort.

::

Claire struggled to put together breakfast for the family. She wasn't much of a cook, but she wanted to at least do this for the family. _Her_ family. She looked up at Jack and smiled; he was sitting at the kitchen table, struggling with Claire's order that he stay seated and let her handle this on her own.

Jack had finally shaved, and Claire had been glad to see his beautiful face emerge from under the beard.

Dean shuffled into the kitchen and stopped short to stare at Claire.

"You can cook??"

"Uh... subjective," Claire replied with a smirk. "I'm just trying to apply what I've learned from my moms. So, we have French toast," she pointed at the fried (and slightly burned) pieces of bread she'd stacked on a plate, "some bacon, and uh... yeah that's it. Shit," she said as she pulled a blackened strip of bacon out of the pan.

Dean smiled at her. "Thanks, Claire." He joined Jack at the table, patting Jack's face. "Lookin' good today, son - how ya feelin'?"

"Better," Jack said, summoning a smile. "Did you check on Ben?"

Dean's face fell a little as he nodded. "He's... well, he's sleeping, so that's good."

The three fell quiet, until Sam and the twins joined them for breakfast, Jo helping Claire finish making food and Dean bringing a plate to Ben.

After breakfast, Dean found Jack in the War Room, scrubbing at the bloodstains on the floor, one of which was made by his own blood.

"Hey, you don't have to do that," said Dean. "Sam and I can take care of it."

"I want to do this," Jack insisted. "I want to do something - I feel so useless."

Dean sighed. "Yeah... I know the feeling." He crouched down to help Jack. "But you know you're not useless, right? What you did for your little brother..." Dean shook his head, swallowed emotion down. "That was the bravest thing I've ever seen, Jack. And I'm proud of you, so proud."

Jack smiled tearily. He watched Dean for a moment.

"Jo told me that the werewolf woman said something about a cure."

Dean shook his head again. "She did, but I don't trust her, not after all this. Probably just another plot to kill us. Things sound too good to be true, they always are."

Jack went on watching Dean.

"I'm not gonna tell you to trust a strange werewolf, because I know I wouldn't," said Jack. "But... maybe you should look into this cure she talked about."

Jack stared down at the reddish brown blotch on the floor below him.

"If you guys were human," he said softly, "you wouldn't go to Purgatory when you died."

"Where _would_ we go then?"

The corner of Jack's mouth pulled up. "You're best friends with the King of Heaven and you're asking that question?"

Dean laughed weakly, then sighed. "Um... well, yeah, good point, I guess."

"You should find out more about this cure," said Jack, determination in his voice. "If there's a way you can possibly be human again, you should investigate it."

Dean sullenly nodded and went on scrubbing at the floor alongside Jack.

Afterward, he brought Sam into the library, and together they called Crowley back.

"You said there wasn't a cure for us," said Dean accusingly to the King of Hell. "Why is this chick saying there _is_ one?"

"I never said that there was no cure," Crowley snarked. "There's no cure _I've_ heard of, but, and I know this must shock you, I don't actually know everything." Crowley set his feet on the table, sitting across from the Winchesters. "So... tell me exactly what she told you."

Sam repeated Silvana's ingredient list and instructions. Crowley's forehead creased.

"Blood of a Dei... that's probably why I hadn't heard of a cure, because I'd never met one of those until your daughter came along. Rarities, those Dei."

"So," said Sam hopefully, "you're saying that the cure could work?"

"Yes. I'm not saying it _will_ work, but yes, it could."

The demon excused himself shortly afterward, and the elder Winchesters remained in the library, pondering what he'd said.

"Dads," came a whisper from the steps of the library - Sam and Dean looked up to see their daughters, watching them with sadness and hope in their eyes, like they had done when they'd watched Silvana leave the bunker. Jo and Charlie came forward.

"I want to try the cure," said Charlie, softly but firmly. "And if it works... I want my brother to do it too."

Sam started to protest but Jo stopped him.

"Please," she begged her fathers, "we have to try this, for Ben. This is the only way we can help him. If we don't do this... we're going to lose him."

Tears welled in Dean's eyes as he realized how right Jo was. Ben wouldn't be able to hang on forever, not like this. The cure was his only hope.

"Okay," Dean breathed out, scrubbing a hand down his face. "We'll try it."

He closed his eyes and called out to Castiel, who he'd asked to keep track of Silvana after she'd left, in case she tried to come after them for killing her cousin.

It was a few minutes before the angel appeared, and he had a haunted look about him. Dean's brow knitted in concern.

"Cas, what happened?"

"Billie," said the angel in reply as he slumped into a chair. "She's not happy about me saving Jack's life, so now I have a reaper revolt on my hands."

Sam's eyes widened. "Christ, Cas."

"Christ has nothing to do with this," Castiel muttered. "I sure could use his help though. But, don't worry, I have it under control. I will, anyway." He looked around at the Winchesters. "Why did you call me here?"

Dean took a deep breath. "You've been watching that werewolf chick since she left here, right?"

"Yes. She's still in the house she and her cousin lived in. She hasn't done anything suspicious."

"She mentioned something to us about a cure that would turn us human."

Castiel frowned. "A cure? Didn't that almost kill you?"

"A cure for Children of Romulus, not for werewolves," said Sam. "We asked Crowley about it - he's never heard of it, but he says it might work."

"So... can you bring the she-wolf back here?" Dean asked reluctantly, not wanting the Dei woman back at all, but forcing himself to ask.

Castiel stared at Dean in confusion until Jo spoke up.

"There's no need for him to bring Silvana," said Jo, "she's already outside."

The eyes of the room narrowed at Jo.

"I asked her to come back," Jo explained. "Earlier today - with my mind."

"Right," Dean muttered. "The mind-mojo you two have." He gazed up towards the bunker's door and he sighed again. "Alright, let's get her in here."

"Get _who_ in here?"

Jack appeared around the corner, Claire beside him. Jack beamed upon seeing Castiel. "Cas! When did you get here?"

"Um," said Sam anxiously, "Jack... there's..."

"The werewolf lady's back," Dean finished for his brother, both of them gazing at Jack with worry. "She's outside - we called her back to ask her about the cure. That's, uh, that's why Cas is here too."

Jack's expression turned to stone, as did Claire's.

"I'm sorry, kid," said Dean apologetically, "I know you don't wanna be around things like her. If you wanna leave until she's gone-"

" _No_ ," said Jack, voice hard as his face. "I'm not leaving my family again. She can come in. If she tries anything," Jack grabbed one of the swords displayed in the library, "I'll be here to make her regret it."

Claire grabbed another of the swords. Sam got up, laid a hand on Jack's shoulder as he passed him, and left the library to let Silvana into the bunker.

When Silvana's scent wafted down to them, Dean and the twins instinctively tensed, and the two humans tensed alongside them.

Sam led the Dei woman into the library. Her scent was nervous, but not malevolent. Charlie glanced questioningly at Jo, who nodded subtly back at her.

"So," Silvana began, "you want to try the cure?"

"Got a question for you first," said Dean, studying the young woman intently. " _Why_ would you want to help us? I mean, we killed your cousin, right? Your cousin who you loved so much."

"My cousin," whispered Silvana, "who, for years, used me to hunt down and kill others like me. Who tried to get _you_ to kill me. And... you're asking why I would want to help you? I was his victim too."

"So you're not doing this to poison us or turn us human so you can kill us more easily?" Dean was trained on her scent like a hound, sniffing for any hint of deceit. But there was none. Silvana gave a sad shake of her head.

"I want to help Ben," she answered. "I can't take away the memory of what my cousin did to him, but I can at the very least help him to move past it."

Dean glanced at Jo, questioningly like Charlie had. _She's telling the truth_ , said Jo in his mind.

"I want to do it first."

The room turned to look at Sam. Sam's eyes were locked on Dean's.

"I'll go first," Sam reiterated. He walked back over to Dean, taking Dean's hands in his. "We have to try this. Whatever the result will be, it will be worth it, for the sake of our children."

"Sammy, you're not going first, I'm-"

"Please, Dean," Sam begged him, squeezing his hands, eyes watering. "Please, let me do this. Let me say goodbye to the monster who attacked you."

Dean frowned over at the spot on the floor where Giò had died. Sam cupped Dean's face and turned it back to him.

"No. Not that one," whispered Sam. "The monster who attacked you when our daughters were babies." Sam's Adam's apple bobbed. "The monster... who bit you on the side of that road and took your humanity from you. The monster inside me."

The pain in Sam's voice made Dean's heart ache, filled his eyes with tears.

"Please, D. _Please_."

"Sammy..."

Dean instinctively pulled Sam to him, wrapped Sam up in his arms, cradled Sam's head in his hand. Fear raced through him at the thought of losing Sam. If he lost Sam, it would break him, break apart those pieces of his heart that he'd had to put back together so many times in his life, too many times.

But then he thought of Ben. And Jo. And Charlie. His and Sam's children were at stake. And there was nothing, nothing at all, that Dean would not do for those children, nothing that Sam wouldn't do either. If Dean and Sam's love for each other filled them, then their love for their children spilled out and filled their entire world. This was his and Sam's _world_ at stake.

Dean kissed Sam's temple, fighting back tears.

"Okay, Sammy," he said, releasing his brother. "Okay." He breathed in deep, nodded. "Let's do it."

"I'll go first, and... we should wait a day until the rest of you do it, to see if anything happens to me," said Sam. Dean hesitated before nodding again.

"I will tell you how to prepare the cure," Silvana said to Jo, who nodded. "You remember what is needed to prepare it?"

"Water from the Tiber, petals from the flower called the Heart of Rome, and... a drop of Dei blood."

"I can get the water and the flower," said Castiel. He asked if there was a specific amount he needed, and Silvana said there wasn't, and with that he vanished and reappeared moments later, holding a jug of water and a blood-red heart-shaped flower.

Silvana instructed Jo to crush the flower petals in a bowl and pour the water over them. Next, Jo was to add a drop of her blood while speaking words of an ancient pre-Latin language.

_Gods, grant me your power over man and beast, to return humanity to man and carnality to beast._

When Jo's blood dripped into the murky water, the contents of the bowl turned a luminous red, the same color as the illuminated inscriptions on the Winchesters' bracelets.

Jo then brought the bowl to her Alpha father - her Alpha father who, it was hoped, would soon be an Alpha no more. Seated at one of the library's tables, Sam took the bowl, gazing at the glowing liquid inside. He looked up at his Dei daughter, and at the others in the room, his eyes landing at last on his brother. They smiled warmly at one another, and Sam closed his eyes as he drank from the bowl.

Everyone backed away slightly, watching Sam. He had set the bowl down, his eyes still shut.

Then a growl rose out of his throat and he tossed his head back, baring fangs at the ceiling, making Jack and Claire tighten their grip on their weapons, making Dean and Charlie and Castiel inch forward in concern.

Sam's eyes opened, glowing Alpha red, but he remained in his chair, his clawed fingers gripping the chair's arms. His growl faded into panting, and slowly the red of his eyes faded back to hazel. His eyes closed again as he grimaced, shuddered, still holding on tight to his chair.

And his scent shifted. Became something different.

His claws were gone, his fangs gone as well, and his scent was no longer that of an Alpha.

At long last, he reopened his eyes. They glistened with tears. Dean approached him, mouth hanging open slightly, eyes moving over his brother's form.

"S... Sammy," he breathed. "You're-"

"Human." A smile dawned big and bright on Sam's face. "I'm _human_ again."

::

Castiel stayed for as long as he could, but it wasn't long before he had to return to Heaven to deal with the reapers. He promised the Winchesters he would be there for them should they need him, and they had only gratitude for the angel.

Ben was lying on his floor, holding his phone, staring at a picture of his ex-girlfriend's smiling face. Remembering her smiling at him, with him. Remembering kissing her. Realizing that Giò had never kissed him.

No love. Only pain. It was all Ben felt.

But then his Omega father knocked on his door. Ben also caught another scent outside of his door, and he frowned at it. It was familiar, but it wasn't.

He opened his door to find that it was his Alpha father, who was no longer an Alpha. Who was a human. He stared at Sam in shock until Sam pulled him into a hug.

Ben's fathers explained what had happened, told him that Sam did this to make sure it would be safe for Ben. Told Ben that if all went well, in a day's time, he would be human too. No longer anyone's Omega; not an Omega at all. Free of the pain Giò had left him with.

"I know it won't erase what happened to you," Dean said softly to Ben, "but you'll be your own person again. Your own person for the rest of your life. And we'll be here for you, to help you get through that life, always."

Sam held his son's hand. Ben looked up at him, felt no more fear when he looked at him - and maybe, Ben wondered, he hoped... maybe he could say goodbye altogether to that fear tomorrow.

It was a day that saw the bunker more full of people than it had been in a long time. Silvana had stayed the night, the other adults taking turns guarding her door - she had been invited to stay partly out of courtesy and partly out of paranoia. Castiel came back, making good on his promise.

Crowley showed up, and for once, he actually seemed concerned. His concern lessened when he saw Sam alive and well, but he still seemed anxious over what the kids were about to go through.

A day after Sam had drank the cocktail that had cured him, Ben drank the same cocktail.

For the first time in his life, Ben Winchester felt what it was to be human. The scar on his neck, like the scar on Sam's neck, was still there... but he was finally free. Free of his sadistic Alpha and free of his own Omega biology. As his family enveloped him in a hug, Ben wept, and this time, he shed tears of joy.

Next up was his sister Charlie, eager to be free of her own designation. When the glowing liquid passed her red-slicked lips, an animal growl erupted from her and she writhed in her chair for several moments before slumping into it. Charlie remained motionless in the chair - the collective heartbeats of the room stopped cold. Her parents and siblings rushed towards her in terror.

Then she peeled one eye open and cracked a grin.

"Haaaaaaa gotcha!! You totally thought I was dead, huh," she said as she opened both eyes and tilted her head back to look at her family, who glared down at her for a moment before matching her grin. Jo smacked the back of her (human) sister's head.

"Idiot," she muttered, although she grinned as well. Jo turned to her Omega father. "Your turn, Big D."

Dean sat at the table, ready to join his family in being human. Sam's hand was on his shoulder. Wordless reassurance - human or not, they were still capable of speaking without words.

Jo handed him the bowl that contained her blood. Dean tried to remember his experience of leaving his humanity behind, but he couldn't, he'd been knocked out by Sam. It occurred to him that, before being turned, he and Sam had merely been brothers, and he wondered what would happen after they both turned back into humans. What would this change?

Sam squeezed his shoulder and Dean looked up at him.

"I'll be here for you," Sam whispered. Dean smiled; Sammy reading his mind again, even without the monster telepathy.

So Dean drank from the bowl.

He opened his eyes back up afterward. He couldn't catch his family's scents anymore. He looked around at them as they smiled at him, Sam's smile the biggest of all. And suddenly, after over sixteen years, Dean's humanity was returned to him. No more fearing the full moon. No more fearing for his children.

With that thought, he looked up at Jo. She had said she would cure her family members, but she hadn't said anything about curing herself.

"Your turn now, right, Jomy?"

Worry edged onto her face. She glanced nervously at Silvana.

"Silvana said that I could try the cure," murmured the Dei girl, "but... she's not sure if it'll work. She said it... it could kill me." Silvana nodded fearfully.

Those words. Dean was tired of his children's lives being threatened. He tried to glare at Silvana, but she looked just as afraid as he was for Jo, and his expression softened with sympathy.

When Dean's eyes met Jo's again, he saw a question in them. She was afraid of the answer. She spoke no words, but Dean could read the question in those familiar hazel eyes.

_Will you accept me like this?_

Dean got up to stand before his daughter.

"You want to stay like this?" he asked her quietly.

Her heart pounding loud enough for her father to hear, she swallowed and she nodded.

"Then you stay like this, baby." Dean cupped her face, the corners of his eyes wrinkling with a smile. "No matter what, you'll always be my baby girl, and this family will always, always have your back."

Tears spilled from Jo's eyes as she hugged her father, and her other father wrapped his arms around the both of them. Jo's siblings joined in the embrace, the Winchester family joining together in love and gratitude while the kings of Heaven and Hell smiled upon them.


	23. Chapter 23

_THE EPILOGUE'S EPILOGUE_

A month after the Winchester family (sans Jo) had turned human saw Sam and Dean with the bunker to themselves on a lazy summer Sunday, something they hadn't had for sixteen years. Their humanity and their bunker.

The elder Winchesters were sprawled on the couch watching football - in their usual position, Sam slumped into the couch with Dean's legs across his lap. They were dressed in single layers with bare feet, Sam lazily massaging Dean's feet. Taking care of his brother like his brother had done for him, and for their kids.

"So," said Sam, "Ben and Charlie are out for the night?"

"Yep. Benny's at his girlfriend's and Charlie and her girlfriend are at a concert in the city."

"And Jo?"

"With Silvana," Dean said with a wave of his hand at the bunker's ceiling, indicating the world outside of it. "Out doing their werewolf thing - that time of the month."

Sam shook his head at Dean's tasteless joke, before frowning in thought. "Huh. Full moon tonight. So weird... it's been so long since I didn't feel it coming."

Dean shoved his foot back into Sam's hand, a demand for more footrubs. Sam huffed a laugh as he acquiesced. Dean sighed, content.

"You think... are Jo and Silvana..."

Dean shook his head.

"Just friends. I don't think Jomy's interested in anyone like that, she's said as much. And, gotta say, I cannot be more thrilled, because there will never be anyone in this world good enough for our Supergirl."

Sam smiled. "How come she doesn't talk to me about stuff like that? The kids, they never talk to me about personal stuff; why is that?"

"I'm the cool dad, okay?" Dean smirked up at his brother. "You just gotta accept that, Sammy, I'm the cool one and you're the dork."

Sam lifted Dean's feet and held them apart as he laid down on top of Dean, then let Dean's legs wrap around him.

"I'm a dork, huh," he muttered, hazel eyes burning into the grass-green below.

Dean hummed a yes. "A giant, oversized dork. Dorkasaurus Rex. Too dorky for this world."

Sam leaned down until his lips were lightly brushing Dean's. A smile curled Sam's lips.

"Too dorky for you to fuck?"

"I never said that," Dean breathed at Sam's mouth, pulling him down.

They still tasted like themselves, each of them had noticed about the other. They had wondered just how much would change after being turned back into humans, but it turned out to be not very much. The strengthened sense of smell was gone, Sam's knot and Dean's slick were gone, those animal components of them - but what drew them together was still there and strong as ever.

They remembered the last time they'd been human together in their bunker, before the Children of Romulus, before any children at all.

Dean had come to Sam's room to tell him about the werewolf case he'd found. He had then found Sam, sitting on his bed facing away from the door and trying not to cry. And Dean... Dean wanted to cry too. Because all he felt, and all Sam felt, was loss. So Dean came to sit beside Sam wordlessly, put his arm around Sam's broad shoulders and pulled his brother close for Dean to kiss the top of his head like he used to when Sam was a boy. It had comforted Sam then and Dean hoped it would comfort him now. And it did. It always would.

Sam and Dean came back to the present moment, laying together on the couch and kissing. Their hearts full, full as could be.

Sam's mouth moved over to Dean's ear.

"You're right, you know." Dean shivered at Sam's deep smoky voice curling into his ear, curling all the way down into Dean's fingers and toes. "About you being the cool one... how did I get so lucky, to get you?"

Dean grinned. " _Lucky_ , huh? First time I've ever heard you call yourself that." Sam moved back to look into Dean's eyes.

"I am," Sam whispered, kissing Dean's lips reverently, lingering there like he never wanted to leave. "Didn't always see it, but I see it now."

So much agony they'd both been through, it was hard to see past that and see the good things in their lives. To see what they _were_ as a good thing.

Sam's lips trailed away from Dean's, kissing Dean everywhere they went. Sam's teeth joining in at the side of Dean's neck, where Dean still bore Sam's mark - mirrored by Dean's mark on Sam's neck. It was where their bodies had come together, to make their children. Sam slid his hands up under Dean's shirt to lift it and Dean pulled it the rest of the way off, so that Sam's mouth could explore Dean's chest. He suckled softly at Dean's right nipple, then his left, and he tenderly kissed the tattoo above Dean's heart, the mark above both of their hearts, the symbol of the joining of their souls.

Sam kissed down onto Dean's belly. There was no longer a womb there, but it was still the belly where their children had first lived, where they had first known love, cradled inside of Dean.

"You big goddamn sap," Dean muttered down at Sam, watching him with shining eyes and a hint of a smile, teasing Sam because he was starting to get emotional and Dean's emotions were hard to handle. Sam smiled back.

He kissed his way down the trail of hair that led into Dean's jeans, popping open Dean's belt buckle and drawing down the zipper, pulling the jeans down when his mouth reached fabric. He leaned up to pull the jeans all the way off, eyes locked on the outline of Dean's stiff cock in his boxers.

Sam wrapped his hand loosely around that outline and felt heat radiating from it. Dean's hips lifted, pressing his warmth into Sam's palm and sighing at the feeling.

Sam reached in and pulled Dean's cock out through the opening in his boxers, making Dean's breath hitch as Sam's fingers curled around him, Sam's thumb teasing up under the head. But Sam didn't feel like teasing.

He took Dean's boxers off to join the jeans on the floor and then he leaned down to give the head of Dean's dick a wet kiss before letting it slide into his mouth, groaning at the same time Dean did, savoring the intense taste of Dean's desire for him. Dean's fingers weakly scraped through Sam's beard before plunging and coiling into Sam's hair as Sam sank lower, took Dean deeper, took Dean all the way.

Dean's groaning intensified as Sam started a slow rhythm, pulling up until he had only the end of Dean's cock in his mouth and then diving down until Dean was deep in his throat, over and over. Dean stared down at his brother in amazement and in love, but then his eyebrows drew down when he realized Sam was still fully clothed.

Gripping Sam's hair, he pulled Sam's mouth off him. "You have too many clothes on," he murmured, picking at the collar of Sam's shirt; Sam licked his lips, grinned, and started stripping. Dean languidly watched the show from the comfort of the couch cushions.

When Sam's jeans and briefs had been kicked off and Sam returned to Dean on the couch, gloriously naked with his blood-heavy cock swaying in front of him, Dean maneuvered his brother onto his back and straddled his hips.

"Want you inside me, Sammy," Dean growled at Sam's mouth before capturing it in a heated kiss. Sam growled right back, Dean swallowing the sound.

They'd only done this once so far, since being turned back. It had taken some adjusting to, since Dean's physiology was human now. Had taken a lot of lube and a lot of prep, and even then, it was a challenge. But Dean _missed_ Sam being inside him. He still wanted it every bit as bad.

Sam shifted slightly off the couch, reaching down into the pocket of his discarded jeans to retrieve a packet of lube.

"You - seriously? Carrying around lube?"

Sam smirked and shrugged. "Came prepared." Dean smirked as well.

"My Boy Scout."

Sam ripped the packet open, slicked his fingers and pressed them down where Dean needed them, tips of those fingers playing across Dean's puckered entrance before one long finger delved into Dean's body.

That finger quickly found Dean's prostate and started to draw moans out of Dean. Dean slicked his hand with the rest of the lube, lined his hard cock up against Sam's, wrapped his hand around both of them (tried to anyway) and he began to stroke them together, squeezing and stroking and slicking them both up with lube and precome. He and Sam let out breathy gasps and rolled their hips together - Sam's middle finger eagerly pressed into Dean to start stretching him open.

When three of Sam's fingers were slipping easily in and out of Dean, he let go of their cocks with one last caress of Sam's weeping crown and he pulled Sam's hand away, lifting up on his knees as Sam gripped the base of his shaft to line himself up. Their eyes were locked as Dean slowly began to lower himself onto Sam's cock.

He gripped Sam's thigh and the back of the couch as he went, gritting his teeth as Sam's girth stretched him wide, burned his insides. Sam watched and was torn between pleasure and worry but Dean dismissed the worry by continuing to slide down.

When he'd gotten most of Sam into him, he lifted back up and then sank back down, letting gravity pull him down further, punching gasps out of both himself and Sam. He kept going, lifting up and falling back, taking more of Sam each time until finally his ass rested against Sam's full balls.

Sam's quivering hands ran themselves up Dean's sides from his hips.

"Are you," Sam said, voice raw and cracked, "fuck, D... is this okay?"

Dean moved his hand from Sam's thigh to Sam's toned stomach, up over Sam's muscled and hairy chest. Over Sam's tattoo, and Dean leaned down to kiss Sam's throat, lips against his mark on the side of his brother's neck.

"So... _so_ much better than okay, Sammy," he breathed. He gave Sam's neck a teasing lick. "Show me what you got, tiger."

Sam held Dean tight as he flipped them on the couch, still sheathed inside of his older brother, and he kissed Dean's neck as he started to thrust.

Sam hadn't thought it possible that sex with Dean could feel better as humans, but somehow it did, Dean now even tighter around him. And with each thrust, Dean felt the thick length of Sam's dick riding his prostate, making embarrassing wanton sounds pour out of Dean's mouth. Sam may be human but he still more than lived up to the nickname of Moose.

Dean's hands worshipped Sam's body above him, one hand palming the alluring curve of Sam's ass while Dean's fingers slipped between Sam's cheeks to tease at his hole. Always made Sammy shudder and groan beautifully, made Sammy's hips rock harder against Dean's, rocking him deeper. Dean's other hand traveled up his brother's back to feel all those muscles moving relentlessly beneath the skin, working so hard for him.

One of Sam's hands braced himself on the couch and the other slid between his and Dean's bodies to take Dean's wet cock in his hand, pumping him in time with Sam's thrusts. Slow, for now. He was in no hurry.

But Dean's orgasm was coming up on him fast, with the steady pressure on his prostate and the stroking of his cock, with just the feel of Sam inside him and above him. The scent of Sam filling Dean's lungs.

His hand fisted in Sam's hair, Dean pulled Sam's mouth down to his, kissing his brother and tasting him again before whispering, " _My Alpha_."

It was what Sam had always been, even before being bitten. The realization swept over them both; Sam kissed Dean again, moaning into the kiss, and when their lips parted he gasped out "my Omega" as his hips increased their pace, driving him deeper into Dean, into his Omega.

"Come for me, Alpha," panted Dean, "fill me up with it, feels so fucking good."

Sam moaned again, balls drawing up tight against him, eager to obey Dean - he slammed hard into the hot clutch of his brother's body and it was only moments before his orgasm rocketed through him and out of him. Dean let out a choked moan at the feeling of Sam's release hot and wet inside of him, pumping him so full that it slid back out of Dean, no knot to hold it inside. With Sam still fucking him, slipping in easy now while his hand slid over Dean's dick, Dean cried out Sam's name and shot his come between their bodies, clutching Sam harder inside him, and Sam went on fucking him and stroking him until they were both spent and sore.

When Sam withdrew from Dean, he slid down the couch's length and turned over, laying on his back between Dean's legs, head resting on Dean's stomach. Which was smeared with Dean's come, which was now smeared into Sam's hair. Dean laughed breathlessly at this - Sam didn't even care, pure bliss on his face. Dean brushed sweaty strands away from that beautiful face.

His beautiful baby brother. Once upon a time, Dean had thought that being in love with Sam was wrong. That feeling had pervaded even when Dean had thought he had evicted it from his heart... but that feeling was finally, blessedly, gone.

Sam and Dean's love was sacred. They had made a fucking _goddess_ together.

And outside, running free through the forest, Jo Winchester howled her gratitude up at the rising moon.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: I named the Italian dude in here after my Italian grandpa, but my grandpa was a very sweet man unlike the guy in here so I hope my grandpa in heaven is cool with me giving his name to this character. LOVE YOU NONNO and love to all my Italian homies out there, VIVA L'ITALIA <333
> 
> This whole fic series grew out of a dream I had almost two years ago, wherein Sam and Dean got turned into Alpha/Omega werewolves and had like a bazillion werewolf babies. I definitely didn't see this becoming an eventual fic series of over 100,000 words. I've devoted a lot of time to it now, and I think I'll probably give it a rest for the most part. I may make a few timestamps to add to the series, my time permitting. If there's something in particular timestamp-wise that you would like to read, please tell me about it, and I promise I'll consider your request. My own ideas that I'm considering so far are: a spooky ooky Halloween fic, a Sam/Dean date night fic, and something featuring Dean being pregnant with the kids because oh my god you guys there is so much of that in my head. So much pregnant!Dean Wincest smut. Makin' my grandpa so proud lol
> 
> Thank you for reading this story, and further thanks to those who have read the whole series, so many words you guys, so many words. Even more thanks to those who have kudosed and bookmarked and subscribed, and MAXIMUM GRATITUDE to the commenters!!! I worked hard on this series, and to hear someone's thoughts on my work makes it actually worth it! Your comments saved this fic from being scrapped because I've gone through some rough times whilst writing this and came real close to quitting on it, but comments - words - they're like oxygen to me as a writer.
> 
> I love this fic a lot and am proud of it, and I hope yall love it too <3 and I very much welcome constructive criticism if you have any! You give me concrit I give you better writing we have deal yes?


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